Rupert Murdoch Set to Block Google Access to NewsCorp Content

Chairman and CEO of News Corporation American Rupert Murdoch has threatened to block search engine Google from accessing his news resources. Photo by BGNES

The media magnate Rupert Murdoch has accused Google of becoming too powerful and influential in the world of news, content and media.

Murdoch suggested his company's online newspaper pages would be invisible to Google users when it launches its new paid content strategy.

He claimed that readers who randomly reach a page via an internet search hold little value to advertisers, in an interview on Sky News Australia.

When asked why News Corp has not stopped Google from finding its content, he replied: "I think we will."

He cited the Wall Street Journal as an example where only the first paragraph comes up on search engines and is free. Anything after that is subscription-based.

He is planning to make newspapers like The Times and Sunday Times chargeable online.

The Guardian, however, has commented that Google, meanwhile, will remain unmoved.

"Google delivers more than a billion consumer visits to newspaper websites each month. These visits offer the publishers a business opportunity, the chance to hook a reader with compelling content, to make money with advertisements or to offer online subscriptions," they write, citing Google’s business manager Josh Cohen.

"The truth is that news publishers, like all other content owners, are in complete control when it comes not only to what content they make available on the web, but also who can access it and at what price,” Cohen added in his blog.

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