Justin Carofano - The online Competition to Save newspapers

When beleaguered middle management from top newspaper firms met at a Chicago airport hotel in late May, they decided they required a savior - that is, a tech company to help them work out methods to earn income online . Letters inviting solutions went out to 10 firms, and in July the replies discreetly rolled in. Google's proposal coincidentally showed up online Sept. 9, sparking a sea of media reports about Google's plan to save newspapers.

'There's definitely a potential for one of these corporations to become the most popular and rule the field, and that's's particularly true if their technology and business model envisions some a multisite pass,' asserts Rich Gordon, director of digital invention at the Medill faculty of Journalism.
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Google has an advantage over the other contenders since it already has the technology available.

But Google's relationship with newspapers is a bit stressed, generally thanks to the way Google stories now distributes newspaper content - effectively diverting readers away from individual news sites by letting them scan reports and story briefs without leaving Google. [**] on Sept.
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Another offer comes from Journalism Online, a pay-for-news company whose founders include Steven Brill, the former editor of Content, and L. Unlike Google , however , Journalism Online's platform remains in development.

Microsoft, the other big-time company that, like Google, already has the technology available to put into effect a pay wall, also suggests totaling information from several news sources in one pay-to-play location. The firm's offer emphasises user preferences and aims to make the content accessible from any device, both on- and off-line. ( See the top ten magazine covers of 2008.
So who will win? Randy Coats, VP of interactive for Scripps Howard papers, will make the choice for his 13 papers. He thinks that tech corporations that base their suggestions on existing tools stand the best chance ; Google is the favourite, he adds, because of its proven history in monetizing online content. 'This is way too important for us to be trusting vaporware.'

There is also the question of whether the assorted pay-for-content ideas would fly with shoppers. Google chairperson Eric Schmidt latterly told British broadcasting managers that charging for online content will not work except for niche and specialist markets. Consumer surveys have a tendency to support those doubts. A Belden Interactive survey released in mid-September found that PC users who said they'd pay for reports online would shell out an average of only $4.64 a month, while 47% of the group surveyed asserted they wouldn't pay anything.