Goospapers perhaps?

Google eyeing closer ties to news industry?

Google executives have been spending an awful lot of time of late talking about journalism in the 21st century, and reports surfaced Monday that it has been thinking about putting its money where its mouth is.

Two reports–by Fortune and The Washington Post–suggest that Google has been talking to both The New York Times and the Post about possible areas of collaboration, or even investment.The Post’s Howard Kurtzsays Google has been talking to executives at the paper “about improved ways of creating and presenting news online,” quoting fellow Post employee and former managing editor Philip Bennett, who iscurrently working on analyzing the future of the news businessfor The Washington Post Company.

Continues @http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10238036-93.html

Newspapers: Dumb, Fat &Lazy?

Howard Kurtz, media columnist for The Washington Post, in aharsh critique of the newspaper industry, writes today that:

The people who run such companies bear a considerable share of the blame. In 1993, just before the Internet became a consumer force, I argued in a book that newspapers had become too cautious, too incremental and too dull, tailored largely for insiders. The rise of hugely profitable monopoly papers in most cities made them increasingly bland, seemingly allergic to controversy.

In other words, the newspaper industry is no different from the U.S. automobile sector — markedly out of step with the mainstream buyers of their products.

Continues @http://gigaom.com/2009/05/11/newspapers-dumb-fat-lazy/