Following his comments last month in which he described aggregators as ‘kleptomaniacs’ and ‘plagiarists’, Rupert Murdoch has suggested News Corp could remove its sites from Google’s index.

Speaking in an interview with Australia’s Sky News (video below): “I think we will [remove our content from Google's index]. But that’s when we start charging.”

As Mumbrella explains: “Using the robots.txt protocol on a site indicates to automated web spiders such as Google’s not to index that particular page or to serve up links to it in users’ search results.”

In the interview, Murdoch also discusses what could be put behind potential news site pay walls.

Full post at this link…

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Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is ahead in the $800m-plus auction for the Travel Channel, ‘in a twist to a process that has underscored the revival in media moguls’ confidence on the industry outlook’, reports the FT.

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Publishers must take back control of their content from search engines, aggregators and bloggers, which have become the ‘preferred customer destinations for breaking news’, the Associated Press’ (AP) Tom Curley has said at an industry summit in Beijing.

“We will no longer tolerate the disconnect between people who devote themselves – at great human and economic cost – to gathering news of public interest and those who profit from it without supporting it,” Curley said (though slightly strangely citing Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook as key examples of threats).

Speaking separately at the event, News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch said ‘the aggregators and plagiarists’ would soon have to pay the price for using publishers’ content for free.

If publishers and news organisations don’t regain control they will pay ‘the ultimate price’ and it will be ‘the kleptomaniacs who triumph’, he added.

Earlier this week the Associated Press (AP) said it is considering whether it could sell news items to online clients for a short, exclusive period.

The agency is also developing a new system for tracking its content online and monitoring copyright infringements.

Full story at this link…

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The Sydney Morning Herald has obtained an email to News Corp online staff, from the company’s digital chief executive, Richard Freudenstein, indicating that paid-for content plans, as announced by Murdoch in August, were now in a ’second phase’.

“The key points from Mr Freudenstein’s communique to News Digital Media (NDM) staff were that the company was reassured by the research it had conducted and that it was proceeding to the next round of development.

“‘News has conducted some audience research here in Australia and in the UK and US, which gives us confidence that, if we get the product and delivery system right, people will happily pay for news content online, on their computer, mobile, e-reader or other device,’ Mr Freudenstein told staff. ‘Here in Sydney we are about to move into the second phase of the project.’”

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The Wall Street Journal is ready to start charging for mobile access on the Blackberry and iPhone and the video site Hulu can be expected to introduce some kind of payment model, News Corp CEO and chairman Rupert Murdoch told delegates at the the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVIII Conference.

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In the wake of news that Fairfax – Australia’s major newspaper owner – has posted a net loss of $380 million for the year to June 30, its managing director has said he he would be ‘happy to talk’ to his rival, Murdoch’s News Corporation, about paid content plans.

Fairfax’s newspapers includeThe Sydney Morning Herald, The Age in Melbourne, and The Australian Financial Review.

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News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch announced yesterday that within a year the Times, the Sun, and the New York Post will all be charging for access to their websites.

“”Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good journalism,” he said yesterday as he announced a $3.4bn loss for News Corp, which owns 20th Century Fox, Fox News and Sky TV as well as newspapers.”

Full story at this link…

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Yesterday afternoon in a powerful Guardian exclusive, investigative journalist Nick Davies reported that the Murdoch News Group papers paid £1m to ‘gag’ phone-hacking victims.

Rupert Murdoch, who owns News Group, recently argued he had little influence on his publications’ editorial content; it would be interesting to see how his other UK papers would treat the story about their sister title today.

Let’s see how each of the UK news websites is running the story [as around 9.30 - 10 am]. [News organisations owned by Murdoch are labelled (M).]

Note: Observations correct at time of writing; subject to updates.

• The BBC has headlined many of its bulletins across radio and TV with the story. Channel 4 ran with the story yesterday. Both news sites feature the story as the main article. Sky News (M) ran it last night and its main (breaking) story on its website is “Cameron: ‘Coulson’s Job Is Safe’”.

• Guardian: Top story with several supplementary features and stories

• Telegraph.co.uk: ‘Newspaper embroiled in alleged £1 million cover-up of phone tapping’ – front page

• TimesOnline (M): Run ‘Cameron told to dump aide over tapping claims’ – in ‘more news section’ on front page

• Financial Times: ‘Murdoch reporters accused over phone hacking’ – front page of main site

• Independent.co.uk: ‘Cameron aide faces phone hacking row’ – front page of main site

• Wall Street Journal Europe online: ‘British Tabloids Face Scrutiny By Government on Privacy Issues’ – front page

• Mirror.co.uk: ‘Tabloid bosses face phone taps quiz’ – Latest news section

• Daily Mail: In news headline section – ‘Prescott calls for police probe into claims journalists bugged his phone‘

• DailyStar.co.uk: Rupert’s £1m bill

• Express.co.uk: ‘News Group’s ‘1M Phone Tap Payouts’ – front page

• Sun.co.uk (M): Not running the story

• NewsoftheWorld.co.uk (M): Not running the story

The Murdoch empire (source: BBC website / News Corp)

NEWS CORP BUSINESSES

Australasia:
Daily Telegraph
Fiji Times
Gold Coast Bulletin
Herald Sun
Newsphotos
Newspix
Newstext
NT News
Post-Courier
Sunday Herald Sun
Sunday Mail
Sunday Tasmanian
Sunday Territorian
Sunday Times
The Advertiser
The Australian
The Courier-Mail
The Mercury
The Sunday Mail
The Sunday Telegraph
Weekly Times

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News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch is now convinced that ‘it is possible to charge for content’ online given the success of paid-for business news on the Wall Street Journal, he said last night.

Any pay model would be tested on one of the group’s stronger titles, he added.

Murdoch also described Newsgroup’s interest in developing its own e-reading or digital paper device.

At the FIPP World Magazine Congress this week Guardian Media Group’s Carolyn McCall suggested Guardian.co.uk could also start charging for specialist areas of the site.

Full post at this link…

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News Corp is ’setting up a new unit designed to share content’ from all of the company’s global sources, reports paidContent.

“The News Corp editorial portal will be headed by John Moody, who has been EVP for News Editorial at Fox News. Moody will report directly to Murdoch.”

Full story at this link…

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