Murdoch optimistic about journalism’s future, but complains of ‘theft’

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News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch continued his campaign today to style the digital news media according to his for-pay vision, declaring he was optimistic about journalism’s future, but adding that in that future, consumers would no longer have free access to expensive news content.

Among the main gripes he reiterated at a meeting at the Federal Trade Commission is the ease with which online readers can access content from his dozens of print publications – mainly through search engines such as Google Inc. Murdoch sees Google not as a fast way for readers to find the stories they’re looking for, but as a digital opportunist that profits from content it didn’t create.

‘There are those who think they have a right to take our news content and use it for their own purposes without contributing a penny to its production. Some rewrite -- at times without attribution -- the news stories of expensive and distinguished journalists who invested days, weeks, or even months on their stories -- all under the tattered veil of fair use.’

‘Their almost wholesale misappropriation of our stories is not fair use -- to be impolite, it’s theft.’

--David Sarno

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