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"As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable. " Rubbish! Google's Human Reso

"As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable. " Rubbish! Google's Human Resources department doesn't make any money either, yet it exists, along with other loss-making divisions. Google as a whole is a very profitable company, and it could easily pay publishers over the long run. It just doesn't want to.

iancarroll 12y ago
Just because you can afford to subsidize something doesn't mean you should. HR has a purpose inside Google, it has an output (payroll, disputes) fair to the input ($$$). Google News would take in $$$ and return nothing.
- notjackma 12y ago
  Yet they're already spending money on Google News: programmers, servers, electricity. So obviously they're getting something out of it, right? There is a purpose to Google News, whether it's tracking cookies or something else; they're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.
  - iancarroll 12y ago
    I can't imagine Spain makes up a large majority of Google News's traffic.
  - adventured 12y ago
    Google has started all sorts of programs and then shut them down because they didn't turn out as hoped. I don't see why Google News losing money, and, say, becoming especially non-economical or burdensome to the company and being shut-down, would be any different.
uniformlyrandom 12y ago
If you think that HR department is a charity, then you do not really understand what HR department does. Try running a company without one, and see how much money you lose.
- notjackma 12y ago
  Try reading what I wrote again. Google employs lots of people who work on things which do not directly generate revenue themselves, but which do contribute to the company's overall profit and loss. Such as HR. However, based on Google's bitchy blog post, were they to treat all such projects and departments equally like Google News, thousands of people would be pink-slipped tomorrow. Get it now?
  - gasull 12y ago
    If it makes no financial sense to Google to run Google News Spain, why should they keep it running?
  - uniformlyrandom 12y ago
    The difference is they do not lose any money if they stop running Google News Spain. They do if they stop running HR.
    - gasull 12y ago
      Actually they'll lose money if they keep running Google News Spain.

iancarroll 12y ago

Just because you can afford to subsidize something doesn't mean you should. HR has a purpose inside Google, it has an output (payroll, disputes) fair to the input ($$$). Google News would take in $$$ and return nothing.

notjackma 12y ago
Yet they're already spending money on Google News: programmers, servers, electricity. So obviously they're getting something out of it, right? There is a purpose to Google News, whether it's tracking cookies or something else; they're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.
- iancarroll 12y ago
  I can't imagine Spain makes up a large majority of Google News's traffic.
- adventured 12y ago
  Google has started all sorts of programs and then shut them down because they didn't turn out as hoped. I don't see why Google News losing money, and, say, becoming especially non-economical or burdensome to the company and being shut-down, would be any different.

uniformlyrandom 12y ago

If you think that HR department is a charity, then you do not really understand what HR department does. Try running a company without one, and see how much money you lose.

notjackma 12y ago
Try reading what I wrote again. Google employs lots of people who work on things which do not directly generate revenue themselves, but which do contribute to the company's overall profit and loss. Such as HR. However, based on Google's bitchy blog post, were they to treat all such projects and departments equally like Google News, thousands of people would be pink-slipped tomorrow. Get it now?
- gasull 12y ago
  If it makes no financial sense to Google to run Google News Spain, why should they keep it running?
- uniformlyrandom 12y ago
  The difference is they do not lose any money if they stop running Google News Spain. They do if they stop running HR.
  - gasull 12y ago
    Actually they'll lose money if they keep running Google News Spain.