Google's Schmidt Seeks To Defuse Newspaper TensionsGoogle's Schmidt Seeks To Defuse Newspaper Tensions

After I wrote my column on the battle between AP and Google (see Web No Longer Wants To Be So Free), Google CEO Eric Schmidt has weighed in with a speech attempting to defuse the tension.Schmidt is a good public face for Google, since he's a nice man. (He's ex-Sun Microsystems; in my experience, all the Sun execs are unusually accessible and down to earth. Maybe it's the technical culture which pervades the company.) Anyway, so Schmidt did what he usually does, which is to try to sidestep any nastiness and put the best public face on Google's activities.

I think he mostly succeeded. What I don't think he did was end the argument between search engines and news aggregators on the one hand, and content creators on the other. The reason he didn't stanch that discussion is because, right now at least, there's no helping those who have to pay big bucks to report and write news and blogs, while we're in the midst of a recession. (Even before the recession, the whole "analog dollars into digital pennies" dynamic has been turning the news industry into a wasteland.

OK, so read quotes from Schmidt's speech here.

And read my assessment here.

What's your take? Let me know, by leaving a comment below or e-mailing me directly at [email protected].

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Alex Wolfe is editor-in-chief of information.com.