At first, I wanted to stay away from the report that Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. are discussing an exclusive search partnership with Microsoft (i.e. Bing). After all, it’s just announcing that they’re discussing. I discuss a lot of things with a lot of different people, while I actually end up doing only a few things.
But because the health and prosperity of online content creation is so near-and-dear to many people, I thought I’d chime in too. Though, disclaimer: I’m just a nobody.
What worries me about exclusive search partnerships for online content is the precedent it could set. If all (or many prominent ones) online content creators sign deals to have its content indexed exclusively, it’ll be a burden on the user/consumer. I don’t want to have to remember which search engines to use to search for certain content.
But of course, in order to create online content, there has to be some kind of business model for it to work.
Personally, I don’t think the subscriber model will work for most content creators. But for the big, powerful, brands and companies, it’s worked to some extent. In 2007, it’s been reported (very bottom of article) that WSJ.com earned $60 million from its online subscriptions.
But I think a major component of the business model for online content will be advertising, as it is now. It’ll just be different.
TheAtlantic.com just wrote up a piece on the exclusive search deal. Near the end of the article, the writer, Derek Thompson, writes, “As a coda, Jeff Jarvis thinks this idea [an exclusive search partnership] is suicide, and I think Jeff Jarvis is wrong. His critique of Google-blocking is all about traffic, and that’s crazy, because nobody in his right mind thinks that online traffic is going to save the new York Times…” He goes on to say, “He’s [Jeff Jarvis] not engaging with the central problem, which is that today’s online ad rates can’t save journalism.”
Derek’s article has a huge Louis Vuitton banner ad to the right side of it. The problem is, I’m not in the market for a Louis Vuitton handbag. There’s very little engagement with it for me.
I think we’ll start seeing the customization of ads for individual users. It may be years out before this is streamlined. On the other hand, it may not be. Google just acquired another ad company.
An aside, if you want read an interesting piece on publishing, read Paul Graham’s.
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