@WSJ WTF?

Dear Rupert Murdoch,

Just in case the public outcry hasn’t been unanimous enough, I join my voice in with the deluge to say that blocking Google from indexing your news sites is virtual suicide. Charging subscriptions on top of that is lunacy.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Mashable Says Don’t Do It

Mashable.com (to social media what the Wall Street Journal is to conservative news) calls Murdoch’s plan to block Google “imprecise” and “confusing”. Staff writer Stan Schroeder concludes, “I honestly can’t understand what’s his plan here. If he plans to charge for websites, why hide them from the search engines?”

Hitwise Says Don’t Do It

Online research analyst Bill Tancer of Hitwise shows that 25% percent of the Wall Street Journal’s traffic currently comes from Google, of which up to 45% are new visitors. Between the loss of readers from Google and the loss of current readers who won’t want to pay, it’s anyone’s guess how much the WSJ stands to loose.

Built To Last Says Don’t Do It

Bestselling business author Jim Collins argues that a relentless drive for progress that impels change and forward movement is the central concept to his revolutionary book Built to Last.  ”Preserve the core and stimulate progress” is the essence of the 18 visionary companies that have thrived for over a 60 years. Collins cites IBM CEO, Thomas J. Watson Jr. who wrote, “If an organization is to meet the challenges of a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything about itself.”

Jeff Jarvis Says Don’t Do It

And, finally, Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? (which has an entire chapter dedicated to mapping out a survival plan for newspapers)  says of the decision to block Google, “Murdoch – who doesn’t use the internet – does not see how distribution works today. He does not understand that being open to the link economy brings him free distribution, free marketing, great benefit.”

Experts Go Unheeded

And just this week, despite consistent opinions from all online experts, James Harding, editor of the London Times announced that he is jumping on Murdoch’s sinking ship. He argues that quality journalism costs money and should be valued. He plans to, “Rewrite the economics of the newspaper.” Ya? You and what army?

“We keep investing in journalism, we believe that’s what our readers want.” He adds, “We’re not dumbing down, we’re dumbing up.” Just let that one sink in for a moment.

You can’t fight the future. We’ve seen the music industry and the car industry each suffer the consequences of trying to make their consumers do it their way. You simply cannot insist on sticking to business as usual in the face of a changing marketplace.

The Internet is a brave new world. It flies in the face of conventional business wisdom. You build the network and then you monetize. You don’t ask your visitors to come to you, you go to them. If the ways you’ve always made money in the past are no longer working, you have to innovate or die a slow and, in this case, humiliating death.