Dying Industry Gets Life-Support From Governments
Newspapers attacking Google is used as an example for a much more serious topic, in this article by “The Economist.” Newspapers in various countries (mainly in Europe) are threatening Google News for revealing the headline and first sentence of articles. Opponents of Google News claim this act “dissuades readers from clicking through to the newspaper’s website to read the entire article.” This show-down has also been backed by various governments including France, Germany, and Italy, who are threatening to create bills stop Google News.
This micro-issue is simply the manifestation of a macro one. What is happening is the death of an out-of-date industry, caused by the spread of a new one. Traditional media is dying out and firms in this industry must adapt or they will go under, for example “not a single newspaper in France is profitable.” Governments should cease backing these dying companies and should instead foster innovation and the adaptation of new technology, as keeping a dead industry alive is a waste of taxpayer money. Jan Malinowski puts it best “[this] is like trying to ban Gutenburg’s printing press to protect the scribes.“