Web 2.0 event in San Francisco
Thursday, 22, Oct 2009 11:14
Direct payment models for online news will appear "in the near future", according to Marissa Mayer, vice-president of search products at Google.
Speaking during the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco yesterday (October 21st), the search engine representative said that people are willing to pay for "quality journalism", which may suggest that strong paid-for website news copy will attract a readership.
According to the AFP news agency, she said: "We need to build the right tools online. News is already engaging in print format - you can make it better with the internet."
During the event, Ms Mayer had to defend her company's news aggregator Google News against claims from Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thompson that the service promotes online news reading "promiscuity".
The comments came as industry experts discussed the issue of the Google platform providing links to news stories and whether the aggregator undermines traditional news operations in doing so.
Web 2.0 Summit got underway at The Westin San Francisco on Tuesday October 20th and will come to an end later today.
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