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Rupert Murdoch Hates Google, Loves the iPad

Posted by timothy on from the consume-consume-consume dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "The Register reports that News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, reiterated his disgust at how search engines handle news and called on old media to rethink how their stories are distributed on the web. 'It's produced a river of gold, but those words are being taken mostly from the newspapers,' said Rupert. 'I think they ought to stop it, that the newspapers ought to stand up and let them do their own reporting.' Murdoch added that the iPad was a 'wonderful tool' for listening to music, watching videos and reading newspapers. 'It may well be the saving of the newspaper industry,' by making it cheaper to distribute content to a broader audience, Murdoch said. 'I'm old, I like the tactile experience of the newspaper,' Murdoch said. '(But) if you have less newspapers and more of these, that's OK. It doesn't destroy the traditional newspaper, it just comes in a different form.'"

19 of 412 comments (clear)

  1. Endorsement by Dyinobal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is sort of like an Endorsement from Satan right?

    1. Re:Endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful


      I long for the day when I wont accidentally stumble across one of his poorly written tabloids which contains little more then thinly veiled propaganda.

      Which 'content' in the overwhelming majority of cases they have not even created themselves (Murdoch's business model has no money left for good investigative journalists): they just syndicate the news from AP (which does get paid by Google) or steal it from some blogger (who does not get paid by Murdoch), add their propaganda to it (which Murdoch should be paying for for us to read. A lot.) and then they slap their advertisements on it (which Murdoch should be paying us for as well - my attention has value and Murdoch should not expect to be able to steal it for free).

      Google on the other hand provides good functionality (a good, unbiased search index and good apps) in exchange for my attention.

      Really, Murdoch should not feel so entitled to the resources of this world. He should compete for them like the rest of the planet does. Right now, as far as I'm concerned his business offer to me falls far short of being as competitive as Google's.

    2. Re:Endorsement by Haymaker · · Score: 5, Insightful
      There are some people who's adblock behavior is kinda on principals rather than "block everything unless it breaks"

      Early after I made my Slashdot account I had adblock on but didn't pay it any mind, and then I saw the "thanks to you contributing positively to this board, you are eligible to turn off ads"

      I felt it was such an honorable and honest system that I disabled adblock for Slashdot and didn't opt-out of the ads. It also made me disable it for other sites I appreciate, like Hulu or even Google.com. Reddit has a "Thank you for not using AdBlock" graphic in place of an ad sometimes. I think it's what Google was saying some time ago: adblockers aren't ruining free websites, people will eventually use them to block out annoying or undesirable ads while choosing to support the websites they would like to support.

      Not that I'm saying this behavior is in the majority, but it might grow with the usage of AdBlockers.

    3. Re:Endorsement by tehcyder · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Murdoch didn't get rich by being honest and forthright

      Yes, uniquely amongst extremely rich people, he's not a nice man.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. Suggestion for Rupert by kimvette · · Score: 5, Insightful

    robots.txt

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    1. Re:Suggestion for Rupert by mysidia · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Rupert's company knows about robots.txt. See, they allow everything.

      And Foxnews is even kind enough to provide sitemaps targeted at facilitating Google

      Rupert's mantra should probably be listen to what I say, (pay no attention to what I do)

  3. Re:I'm torn... by oldspewey · · Score: 5, Funny

    It doesn't exactly help dispel the notion that the iPad is for douchebags.

    --
    If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
  4. Yes of course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's no surprise the media loves a locked down device. If enough people have these kind of crippled devices, they can stop making content available online and require apps or subscriptions for everything. This also helps to explain the media's unabashed love for the iPad.

  5. The other reason Murdoch likes the iPad... by caladine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wall Street Journal:
    Online + Printed: $2.99/week
    iPad only: $3.99/week
    Anyone else see the problem here?

  6. Re:I'm torn... by binarylarry · · Score: 5, Funny

    The only way this could get worse for Apple is if Osama Bin Laden reads his next set of crazy pronouncements off an iPad.

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  7. Oh grandpa! by Cyberllama · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He's like the elderly relative at Thanksgiving who keeps saying racist things that would make everyone uncomfortable but they're so used to it they just roll their eyes and say "Oh Grandpa!" Is there any way this guy could not get it less? He understood how to be a Newspaper tycoon, but these days that skillset makes him roughly as useful as a candlestick maker or a wheelwright.

    He keeps saying all this crazy stuff, but the guys who actually run Newscorp keep doing the opposite, lucky for them. They could easily edit their robots.txt and keep Google out, but they're smart enough to not only let Google in, but to let users coming in from Google slip past the pay wall . . .

  8. Re:It seems like by oldspewey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sergei Brin: Last week we pulled out of China, and today we're pulling out of Rupert Murdoch.

    --
    If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
  9. Re:iPads as newspaper replacement by Superdarion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Have you ever watched that movie called Big, with Tom Hanks? I remember very clearly this scene in which Susan is presenting her new revolutionary idea to her company. It is a cyber-comic book, in which you can display the pages of your favorite comic book and change the page and everything. Sounds familiar?

    The executive, disgruntled, then asks: Why would a kid pay $100 for that device if he can get a comic book for just 15 cents?

    Everyone laughs at Susan.

  10. Re:We need a better free press by LingNoi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Indeed I have noticed that most of the breaking stories these days have come from Wikileaks. Although not technically news it's been much more informative then traditional rags that put a spin on everything.

  11. Re:I'm torn... by bertoelcon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nothing says cool and hip like an endorsement from an old geezer.

    --
    Anything can be found funny, from a certain point of view.
  12. Re:It still kills the traditional paper. by dakameleon · · Score: 5, Funny

    It'

    Damn, looks like the Old Media got to him before he could finish the post...

    --
    Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
  13. Re:The Sooner the Better by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I agree the analysis was simplistic, but maybe I can state it a little more clearly... old monolithic media organizations provide an invaluable service, in terms of investigative reporting

    That's why they investigated Madoff and brought about ...... uh, wait..... they ignored the information they were given about Madoff and did not investigate.

    IMHO, traditional media has lost the right to claim that they provide an invaluable service through investigative journalism. Madoff isn't the only example where traditional media failed, there are many others. How did Drudge get started? Because traditional media would not touch a story, etc..

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
  14. Re:Logically... by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was actually quite shocked when the Economist site went free. Beats me why - those were high-quality articles I was willing to pay for. As in, pay to access the site.

    Here's what's not cool though: bitching that Google is stealing from you, when you're not even following Google's suggestion on how to prevent Google from indexing your content. That's just pure whining and ass-hattery.

    --
    Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
  15. Yeah. by weston · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've kindof been on the fence about the iPad (yeah, it's kindof pricey, it's missing some nice peripheral features, and the app-lock might be inconvenient someday, but on the other hand, the featureset makes it seem like it'd be a good spot between e-reader and netbook for me, plus there's a cool array of audio/instrument apps that have grown up around Cocoa Touch over the last two years).

    But now that Rupert Murdoch has endorsed it, I'm more interested in checking out alternatives.

    --
    Tweet, tweet.