Perhaps newspapers need a refresher on marketing....

Yesterday I published an article on deconstructing news in the attention economy claiming that newspapers need to identify and expand their audiences to survive. Today, Techdirt notes that now some newspaper owners are upset that Google is indexing their stories and photographs.


Yikes! This is a bit like complaining that doctors and dentists are putting newspapers in their waiting rooms. Google is driving traffic to newspaper Web sites to read their stories, yet newspapers are suing them to stop, or at least pay them. Next thing you know, newspapers will take a page from the RIAA and start suing their customers.


This situation is a great example of why new media news sites have a huge advantage over old media; they understand that more audience attention is good. Any new media news site loves Google because they increase their site traffic. More traffic means more ad views and more revenue. In fact, many sites optimize their pages and sites for better Google indexing. Why wouldn't newspapers want this?


I said yesterday that most newspapers underspend on marketing. This activity shows that some don't even understand the concept. Perhaps the best thing to say is that there is some Darwinian justice here. Those that don't understand marketing won't be around much longer.

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