Archive of thenextweb.com
Sony, in a move against Amazon, has landed a deal with News Corp to distribute both the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal on its e-reader.
The Sony Reader will be offering paid subscriptions to both newspapers at different price points.
A normal subscription to the Wall Street Journal will cost $14.99 with an option to pay $5 more monthly for a summary of the paper. The New York Post will cost $9.99 monthly.
Sony and News Corp will also be offering access to some MarketWatch information for $10.99 monthly.
While the prices sound steep, after all they near the noraml cost of the papers, but cost nothing to deliver, it does seem odd that News Corp has selected Sony to work with. Amazon is generally considered to be the market leader, both in terms of technology and units sold. (more…)
In his tirade against free news, Ruport Murdoch recently threatened to remove his portfolio of his sites from Google’s search index.
While it created a stir online, few, myself included, thought he may actually go ahead with it. Today it appears he may have done.
According to Trend Visualizor, the total number of NewsCorp pages (a sum of MySpace, IGN, RottenTomatoes, …) has today dropped from 192 million to 12 million. Although all Google web sites still indicate that e.g. MySpace has 179 million pages in the index, the Google Search API is currently returning another number for that: only 7 million.
Of course this may be a bug, something we’re contacting Google about as we speak. That said, a look back at Google’s previous API calls show very few sharp drops. Could Murdoch have found a way to drastically remove itself from Google?
![Has Newscorp already begun to remove itself from Google? [Graph]](http://thenextweb.com/files/2009/12/4149930709_27a3cf4690_o-600x137.png "4149930709_27a3cf4690_o")
Which sites are Newscorp?
Looking at Murdoch’s principle sites, the numbers are astonishing: (more…)
Surely you heard the news that Microsoft is contemplating a deal with News Corp to pay the news giant to pull itself from Google.
Bing, of course, would still be able to spider News Corp properties, giving Bing a major competitive advantage.
From myself, and the rest of the internet community: Microsoft, you must not do this.
Doing so would set a precedent that content should charge search engines for the right to be spidered. What you are doing is just that, attempting to buy exclusive rights to News Corp online. This is the proverbial slippery slope.
Openness is one of the most important concepts on the internet. If you create content, it is searchable. Google brought this revolution, and made the internet not just live up to its potential, but made it useable. Pre-functioning search, the internet was just an idea with potential. Search unlocked the dragon, in the best way possible. (more…)
Turns out they were hardly bluffing. News Corp is still hurtling in the direction of paid access to content, and will pull out of Google in the coming months.
Sounds the war drums, Google is about to become quite a bit less useful. No small thing. If Rupert Murdoch can indeed pull off leaving Google, and demonstrate that a pay wall is possible and profitable, we will see a cascade of news organizations moving to follow suit.
Once all the news is gone from Google (and eventually Bing, Ask, etc.), we will be forced to watch the news come out in wholly different ways. Mark Cuban thinks that Twitter and Facebook are suitable substitutes for Google News for the masses. I disagree. (more…)
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has taken full ownership of mobile content provider Jamba by buying VeriSign’s 49 percent stake for about $200 million. VeriSign has been trying to divest its slower-growing businesses to focus on its core website-naming and Internet security services.
Jamba was founded in Berlin in 2000 by the Samwer brothers (that’s right, those guys who invested in Facebook) and is still based in the German city next to having established its US headquarters in California. In late 2004, VeriSign bought Jamba for about $270 million. On 12 September 2006, News Corporation announced it paid approximately $188 million for 51% shares in Jamba and would combine it with Fox Mobile Entertainment assets.
The company makes content like wallpapers, ringtones and games for mobile phones. It also offers short episodes — called “mobisodes” — of some Fox TV series, including “24,” “Prison Break” and “Bones,” for phones. The company also sells insurance for mobile phones and home electronics and runs online gaming and online dating services.
(Hat tip to SAI)
