Money for huffing
Rupert Murdoch appears to be putting his - or more precisely, Microsoft's - money where his mouth is, according to a report in the FT.
It claims that Microsoft and Murdoch's media conglomerate News Corp have been in talks concerning Microsoft paying News Corp for the exclusive right to list its content on the Bing search engine. In other words, to delist the content from Google.
As far as precedent setting goes, this one could be a biggie. If search engines start paying media for the privilege of listing their stories then it will generate a completely new revenue stream for the media at a time when many are struggling to get by on a primarily ad-funded model.
The FT stresses that talks are at an early stage and was unable to get official confirmation from either company, but it also suggests that Microsoft has been talking to other major publishers.
Of course, this is a direct broadside at Google, which is far more dependent on search-related revenues than Microsoft. While Google has, in the past, downplayed the importance of news (as opposed to e-commerce or blogs or whatever) as a revenue driver, it's not hard to imagine some users defecting to Bing if that's the only place they can read sites like wsj.com.
Wsj.com is supposed to be subscription-only, with only the first paragraph or two of a story viewable by non-subscribers. But the thing that must be winding Murdoch up big-time is that if you find a wsj.com story on Google, when you click through you get to see the whole thing. Try it yourself with its story on this topic: Microsoft, News Corp. In Early Talks On Web Deal.
So will this be the start of a bidding war between two very deep-pocketed technology giants? The media industry will certainly be hoping so.
