My friend Jeff Kobil sent me an interesting article that claims Google is going to start paying publishers for content.
Whenever I see something like this, it reminds me of square dancing. Remember when the caller would say “hurrah, hurray, you’re going the wrong way”?
This is why. Any time you let Google set the agenda or the terms, you’re going the wrong way.
Remember that old meme, “All your base are belong to us”? It was a bad English translation of a Japanese game.
Every publisher should find that meme, print it out, and put it prominently in the CEO’s office.
Here’s why.
Every tech giant has one very clear goal. “All your customers are belong to us.”
All your customers become Amazon’s customers. All your customers become Google’s customers. All your customers become Apple’s customers. Because they know that all the money is in the subscriber relationship. They’ll be quite happy to give you a dime for your content if it means they’re migrating your customers into their system.
Publishers foolishly believe they’re getting a good deal when they sell their content. Hurray! We’re getting lots of dimes for the latest article.
No.
Whenever you see a proposal like this, from any tech giant, read it this way. How is the tech giant trying to get all of our customers to become their customers? How will this eventually cause a migration from me to them? That’s always the strategy.
That’s rule number one.
Rule #2 applies to Google specifically.
Their motto is to organize all the world’s information and make it universally available.
“Universally available” means “free, supported by the ad system that Google controls.”
Now … how is that helping your publishing business?
It’s not. Don’t be deceived by these tricks. Google is not going to rescue publishers out of the goodness of their hearts. They have their own agenda, and they’ll use you, and your content, to further it.
