Google is a vampire, claims one publisher. The guy works the analogy in some detail:
Dow Jones Chief Executive Les Hinton raised the rhetoric a notch, calling the Internet search giant a vampire “sucking the blood” out of the newspaper business, and promised that new developments would level the playing field.
Hinton seems to be thinking of vampire bats, perhaps:
“There is a charitable view of the history of Google,” said Mr. Hinton, who is also publisher of The Wall Street Journal. “[It] didn’t actually begin life in a cave as a digital vampire per se. The charitable view of Google is that the news business itself fed Google’s taste for this kind of blood.”
Of course, it's all about the plummeting business model of newspapers:
By offering its content free on the Web, the newspaper industry “gave Google’s fangs a great place to bite,” he continued.
Does this make publishers wholesome victims, preyed on in their innocence? Or fearless vampire hunters, fighting the great parasitical evil?
Strike another blow for the fearsome Google meme. We've been observing it for quite a while.
Comments