163: Publishers need to be decolonized

It’s so bad that some publishers are repeating the rhetoric of their colonizers.

I’m trying to think my way through an article titled “Google Could Become New Money Source For U.S. Journalists, Content Creators.” I’ll provide a link below.

I’ve stressed the point that Google started indexing publishers’ copyrighted content – without their permission – on the assumption that this was a means of discovery for the publisher. The tradeoff was that Google ingested your content, but you got traffic. I’ve called it a bad deal, but it wasn’t even a deal. It was a shakedown. Or just plain old theft.

As I’ve explained elsewhere, that bargain is over. Google and other tech services have created the assumption that they can simply steal your copyrighted content off your website to train their large language models – so they can replace you.

Publishers aren’t thinking strategically. Rather than questioning this whole scheme that they were suckered into, their emphasis now is on compensation.

But that’s been the trick all along. The tech giants are happy to give publishers dimes while they make dollars. And it’s happening all over again.

The deal in this particular case is that Google will pay Canadian publishers 100 million Canadian dollars to serve news content in its search engine.

I like getting a check as much as the next guy, but the strategic imperative right now is not to get paid under the current scenario. The strategic imperative is to change the game.

Links

Google Could Become New Money Source For U.S. Journalists, Content Creators
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https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/391867/google-could-become-new-money-source-for-us-jour.html?edition=132648