Murdoch threatens to block Google search
Updated on 09 November 2009
News Corporation chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch tells Sky News Australia that he may remove his newspapers' content from Google's search index.
In an interview with Sky News Australia at the weekend, Murdoch said he may take these measures to ensure the content of News Corporation papers - which includes the Times and the Sun - can only be read online by paying customers.
A "pay wall" is already in place on The Wall Street Journal site. Non-subscribers are limited to the first few paragraphs on articles. The problem Murdoch wishes to resolve is that readers who access the same articles via links posted on Google can access full articles.
Murdoch suggested the removal of News Corporation websites from Google's search index would take place once the pay walls had been implemented.
The reason, he said, was because "the people who simply just pick up everything and run with it steal our stories. We say they steal our stories. They just take them.
"They shouldn't have had it free all the time, and I think we've been asleep."
