Are investment groups killing US newspapers?

Today about half of America’s newspapers are controlled by private equity, hedge funds and other investment groups. But as the FT’s James Fontanella-Khan explains, one name stands above the rest: Alden Global Capital. The Alden recipe is to get rid of the newsroom, sell the real estate, and viciously cut costs. Critics say it’s destroying local newspapers, but Alden says it’s saving them. 

 

Google preparing payment system for newspapers: Report

Google might launch a micropayment system for newspapers by the end of the year according to reports in an Italian newspaper La Repubblica, which says Google is encouraging publishers to try out a system called NewsPass.

La Repubblica says that, with Newspass, people will be able to log-in to the sites of participating news publishers using a single login. Publishers will be able to designate what type of payment they want to accept, including subscriptions and micropayments. People who find content from participating publishers in Google search will see a paywall icon next to that content and be able to purchase access directly from there using Checkout.

It’s unclear if such a program would be launched in Italy at first, or worldwide. In response to the report, Google said: “We don’t pre-announce products and don’t have anything to announce at this time.”

The idea of a Google micropayment system for newspapers came to light last September when Nieman Journalism Lab posted an 8-page PDF that Google wrote in reply to an RFP from the Newspaper Association of America. The PDF may be downloaded at; http://www.niemanlab.org/pdfs/Google.pdf