More papers to block Google

Publishers of the Denver Post and the Dallas Morning News may pull some of their stories from Google's news site, a move that would emulate News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch.

News Corp is considering blocking Google's search engine from displaying its news articles and is talking to Microsoft about displaying stories on its Bing site.

MediaNews Group, the Post's publisher, will block Google News when it starts charging readers in Pennsylvania and California for online content next year, chief executive Dean Singleton said.

Morning News owner A.H. Belo may introduce online subscription fees and also block Google, executive vice-president James Moroney said.

"The things that go behind pay walls, we will not let Google search to, but the things that are outside the pay wall we probably will, because we want the traffic," Singleton said.

Newspaper publishers, grappling with a collapse in the print-ad market, are considering website charges and are pushing back against Google, which displays headlines and excerpts from stories on its free news site.

News Corp, whose Wall Street Journal already charges for online subscriptions, has also said that it plans more paid content.

While newspapers have complained about Google using their news to attract users and boost revenue, fewer than 1 per cent have opted out, Josh Cohen, head of Google's news division, said.

A significant number of publishers would have to block access to their content to produce a notable impact on Google's search results, said Greg Sterling, principal at consulting and research firm Sterling Market Intelligence in San Francisco.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said this month that his company would like to keep news providers on its site.

"We do worry about it, and we think it would be a bad outcome" for newspapers to leave Google, Schmidt said.

Murdoch, News Corp's chairman and chief executive, said this month that he may remove the company's content from Google searches.

MediaNews, based in Denver, will block Google News from content it puts behind a so-called pay wall next year at newspapers in Chico, California, and York, Pennsylvania, Singleton said.

A.H. Belo, based in Dallas, hasn't decided if it will block Google News and any action isn't "imminent," said Moroney, who is also publisher of the Morning News.

Blocking Google would be part of a larger strategy, he said.

- BLOOMBERG