As Newspapers Die, Google Offers New Life

(MoneyWatch)  Whatever happens to print newspapers in our time, Google seems determined to preserve them in digital form for all time.

First updating yesterday's report about the massive jobs cuts at Gannett, the watchdog blog that is crowd-sourcing the carnage now lists a total of 1,794 known layoffs at 65 of the chain's 86 newspapers.

Google, meanwhile, has purchased Paper of Record, an Ottawa-based firm that since 1999 has been digitizing newspapers and turning them into searchable databases. Its first project, the Toronto Star, is completely digitized from its founding in 1892 through today. The company has also digitized papers from the UK, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Ecuador France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Mexico.

We've been reporting on Google's efforts for months now. Since the acquisition of Paper of Record represents a quantum leap forward, it is worth restating the core principles behind Google's effort:

• Google says it seeks the permission of publishers before digitizing its archives.
• Google is bearing all the costs of the digitizing project, which will be substantial.
• Google also says the great majority of the ad revenue earned off of these archives will go to the publishers.
• The public will get free access to these archives.
• The newspaper companies may finally realize that a better online business model is monetizing archives through ad revenue than their age-old method -- subscriptions.
• Most importantly, Google is not putting newspapers out of business.

For these and other reasons, I think the huge effort undertaken by Google is a good thing for the newspaper industry, and therefore, today's news is further evidence that it is succeeding.