Washington Post hunkers down

It looks like the Washington Post is pulling out of its bureaus in other U.S. cities to concentrate on Washington-area coverage in yet another example of cuts that can't help but devalue the content of the news organization.

One wonders if sacrificing content makes sense given the competitive environment.

When all else fails -- cheat

Evidently, as bad as recent reports of newspaper circulation losses are, in reality they are probably worse. According to this article new auditing rules mean that newspapers can doublecount online and print subscribers.

Good Luck making that work

Murdoch is suggesting that his new paid content sites will be invisible to Google.

It will be interesting to see if he can make that work. I'm skeptical, because Google is not only most people's first choice for searching for information, but their last. IO think Google is becoming like TV, if it's not on Google it doesn't exist.

Actually, I think this would make sense

It's rumored that Google may have its eye on the New York Times.

Most initial reaction is that Google would be crazy tow ant the NYT and its problems. Perhaps true as far as it goes, but the NYT's problems mostly revolve around money and that's the one problem Google can solve.

In return Google can buy a name that still has some credibility (although damaged as of late, due to money problems) that would seem to have a lot of intangible worth for Google. Google, as behemoth as it is, has a little problem of its own. It hasn't been here very long. Linking to a venerable institution like the NYT could help give Google an aura of stability and permanence, which I think it needs to move to the next stage in its plan to take over the world.