And this is the battle of the new age, Ladies and Gentlemen! Google vs. Newspaper (and not yet Rupert dude!)

So it all started with Rupert suggesting that he will (or can, or whatever) block Newscorp Sites from being part of Google. Basically, stop Google from indexing them and thus not showing them in search result. Because Google friggin hasnt made all that content, which has supported the lives of random journalists (only half of whom are actually needed to write that shit!) and so doesnt have any reason why it should show all that content when being searched for.

So Eric, comes back with a stellar response! If not for the battle, the sheer honesty and clarity in his thoughts makes it for a fantastic read

With dwindling revenue and diminished resources, frustrated newspaper executives are looking for someone to blame. Much of their anger is currently directed at Google, whom many executives view as getting all the benefit from the business relationship without giving much in return. The facts, I believe, suggest otherwise.

Google is a great source of promotion. We send online news publishers a billion clicks a month from Google News and more than three billion extra visits from our other services, such as Web Search and iGoogle. That is 100,000 opportunities a minute to win loyal readers and generate revenue—for free. In terms of copyright, another bone of contention, we only show a headline and a couple of lines from each story. If readers want to read on they have to click through to the newspaper’s Web site. (The exception are stories we host through a licensing agreement with news services.) And if they wish, publishers can remove their content from our search index, or from Google News.

t’s understandable to look to find someone else to blame. But as Rupert Murdoch has said, it is complacency caused by past monopolies, not technology, that has been the real threat to the news industry.

Brilliant!!