Google News: How Can It Make Money? - Who Benefits from Google News?
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Common sense would seem to indicate that Google news would benefit both people searching for news and the news services which make their way to the front page of Google News. Although the site receives over 6 million visitors a month, that's not always the case.
As it turns out, larger news hubs may be losing pageviews to smaller news sites who come up before the larger site in a search. News hubs like CNN and MSNBC, who rely heavily on advertising revenue, including - ironically enough - Google's AdWords, are losing individual page hits. That's because readers who come from Google News are "one hit wonders," readers who show up for only one page and are off your site as soon as they're done reading what they're looking for. They're more likely to hit the Back button than they are to continue searching on whatever site they've just landed on, especially if they're looking for information on a particular subject. At the very least, even if readers do stay on the site, these sites have just lost one page visit, due to the readers' bypassing of the first page.
The benefactors here are smaller sites who can't compete with the exposure given to the major hubs. These sites are more likely to be discovered by someone doing a search through Google News than pretty much any other way. For example, how many sites with weather information were found by Americans in the southeast during the string of hurricanes that ravaged the region in August and September of 2004? Both the NHC and The Weather Channel got their share of hits, but how about The Jamaica Observer, or the Palm Beach Post, who not only reported on the hurricanes, but also on people's dietary habits during the ordeal (Hurricane Frances made me fat)? I'm sure many of these smaller sites have seen a definite increase in hits since they were first included in Google News. And the average reader has found his share of new sites using the service.
But is it all about sharing the knowledge? Unfortunately, that kind of feel-good belief was destroyed when Google sent a cease-and-desist letter to Julian Bond this past April for creating customized RSS feeds from Google News. The letter mentioned that the Google News does not allow "webmasters to display Google News headlines on their sites." Look who's calling the kettle black!
Next: What's the Problem? >>
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