Is Google the root of all pain?

Saturday, April 07, 2007 by Dave Winer.

Washington Post: "If all of the newspapers in America did not allow Google to steal their content, how profitable would Google be?' Zell said during the question period after his speech. 'Not very.'" 

Believe it or not I think I understand what he's saying even though what he literally said makes no sense. 

He's thinking that publishing their content on the web is a money-loser for his papers. It has nothing to do with Google, but in his mind there is no separation between Google and the web (and he has a point, most of the money being made on the web, market cap-wise is being made by Google). 

He's looking at the balance sheets of the papers he's bought and wondering "Why the fuck are we on the web?" 

Good question, btw. Not saying it would be good for us if they pulled out of the web, and ultimately it probably wouldn't do anything to help the financial condition of his papers.