Josh Cohen is responsible for global product strategy, marketing and publisher outreach as senior business product manager for Google News , a computer-generated news site that aggregates headlines from news sources worldwide. He has a background as vice president of business development for Reuters Media and as director of business development for SmartMoney.com, a joint venture between Dow Jones and Hearst. As a facilitator at API's Newsmedia Economic Action Plan Conference in September, Josh was asked about Google's relationship with newspapers and online business strategy. Here's what he said.
1. Is Google a friend, enemy or "frenemy" of news organizations?
Google is a friend of news organizations. We see our relationship as symbiotic: News publishers create great content, and we help people find and read it. We also help publishers make money through advertising tools.
2. How do you respond to criticism that Google is taking more than its fair share of online advertising revenue?
Advertising isn't a zero-sum game. There's no doubt that we've been very successful in search advertising, but we know that most large advertisers tend to advertise on all the major search platforms, not just on ours. Furthermore, we don't see search advertising as a stand-alone market, and most of our advertisers don't either. Advertisers are constantly shifting their ad dollars among different types of media -- print, TV, radio, and online. In fact, the much-discussed shift of ad spending from newspapers to the Internet is evidence that advertisers see different forms of advertising as competing with one another.
3. Why should news organizations band together to make Google News better?
Our primary focus is on helping users find content. While we want to be the starting point for a user's news search, we are not trying to be the end point. Each month, Google News alone sends almost one billion clicks to news publishers worldwide. The more traffic Google News receives, the more we'll be able to send to our partners.
4. What happens to Google News if newspapers go out of business?
Some newspapers may go out of business, but we don't think print is dying. Some people will always want to receive their news on paper. On the Web, there's no doubt that newspapers today are an important source of the quality information that Google and other search engines index. We think they will remain so. But it's important to point out that Google News includes more than 25,000 news organizations from across the globe, many of which aren't newspapers. It's important for society that trusted journalism survives, regardless of the medium through which it's delivered.
5. What's next?
No one can change or reverse journalism's broader shift toward digital media -- transformation of how news is consumed. Both the existing business model and the current product must change. There is no single cause for the news industry's current financial troubles. There will likely be a number of possible solutions, but there is no silver bullet. Subscriptions? Micropayments? Non-profits? Hyper-local? The answer is yes -- each of these can be a viable solution for certain publishers. However, a singular focus on the business model is short-sighted. The product must evolve too. Concepts such as a persistent URL for evolving news stories, the ability to remember whether I've already read something on my computer or mobile phone, and more clear steps for readers to take at the end of an article are all ideas that should be explored in more depth. We'd love to help news publishers innovate.
This interview is the first in a series of conversations with five media executives who shared their deep knowledge and expertise at API's Newsmedia Economic Action Plan Conference in September. The program addressed one of the most critical issues facing the news industry: generating revenue from online content. The conference was based on the Institute's Newsmedia Economic Action Plan , an integrated five-point plan to guide the news industry through the current disruptions and position it for the future. You can download a free copy of the report by clicking the link.
