James Ashton: Cash-rich Google gets out its chequebook

Outlook James Murdoch was particularly irate when the BBC acquired the Lonely Planet travel guides a few years back.

Why should the Beeb be allowed to shovel its state-sponsored wealth into a for-profit venture that had precious little to do with its public service remit?

He had a point. BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the Beeb, has in the past had quite an elastic definition of where it should be operating and where it shouldn't.

It has been hugely successful in taking British formats such as Strictly Come Dancing around the world – projects that tip cash back into the BBC. But it has quietly hung onto Lonely Planet while selling off the Radio Times and various other bits and pieces its boss, John Smith, decided were non-core.

Now the BBC has a new competitor in the form of Google, which has just bought travel guide Frommer's. Publishers take note. There was a time when Google insisted it had no interest in creating content. A rescue takeover for Yellow Pages, whose local search business it was stealing, was poo-pooed.

Instead, Google's algorithms were there purely to organise what someone else had invested to create. But a backlash from those creators – such as when Google tried to capitalise on hotel and restaurant reviews from websites such as TripAdvisor – has forced the search giant to get out its chequebook.

Frommer's joins Zagat, the restaurant guide, in the Google fold. What more could follow? Google's cash pile increases as the valuation of many traditional media assets heads in the other direction.

I wonder what Mr Murdoch, ensconced in New York at News Corporation and not quite so vocal these days, thinks of it all?

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
News in pictures
World news in pictures
       

Day In a Page

Andrew Mitchell: 'It's no good feeling hard done by'

Andrew Mitchell: 'It's no good feeling hard done by'

In his first interview since 'plebgate', the former Chief Whip opens up just enough to concede that, in politics, you have to take the rough with the smooth
Corruption and the FCO: Blue skies, white sands, dark clouds

Corruption and the FCO: Blue skies, white sands, dark clouds

Special report: Met police call for criminal inquiry into former diplomat's Cayman Islands rule
Fallen angel: Winona Ryder on bouncing back from her decade in the wilderness

Fallen angel: Winona Ryder bounces back

She owned the 1990s... but then she disappeared. Now, Ms Ryder is back with quite the bang in her latest role, as the wife of a notorious real-life Mob hitman.
Roman Polanski shakes Cannes Film Festival

Roman Polanski shakes Cannes Film Festival

The director's new film, 'Venus in Fur', is one of the raciest on offer
Rev Richard Coles: 'I don’t have any concerns that God is cross with me for being gay and eventually the Church won’t either'

Rev Richard Coles on the Church and homosexuality

The mellifluous, erudite and witty Coles is the nation's most pop-culture-friendly priest
'Baghdad likes to live from crisis to crisis': Civil war looms in Iraq

Patrick Cockburn: Civil war looms in Iraq

The governor of Kirkuk - one of the country's most violent but successful provinces - fears the worst
Written on the body: Tattooists at pains to point out their artistic credentials

Written on the body

Tattooists at pains to point out their artistic credentials
Conquering Everest: 60 facts about the world's tallest mountain

Conquering Everest: 60 facts about the world's tallest mountain

The IoS marks the sixtieth anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first reaching the peak of the highest mountain on Earth
A new, and irreversible, Dust Bowl looms

Rupert Cornwell: A new, and irreversible, Dust Bowl looms

The destructive power of tornadoes will be as nothing once the Great Plains' vast underground water reserve dries up
Every creature's needless death diminshes us all

Philip Hoare: Every creature's needless death diminishes us all

A 60 per cent decline in our national species should alarm us, yet few of us act. But to mind more about animals would reflect well on society
Killing with kindness: Burma's religious battleground - and the monks at the heart of it

Killing with kindness: Burma's religious battleground

Six years ago, the world cheered the monks behind Burma’s Saffron Revolution. Now, a horrific new eruption of religious slaughter is being blamed on a 'Buddhist Bin Laden'.
Let's take it outside: Bill Granger's Bank Holiday feast

Let's take it outside: Bill Granger's Bank Holiday feast

You can’t always depend on the weather – but you can avoid the pitfalls of the British barbecue by preparing an elaborate outdoor feast indoors ahead of time...
The Calvin report: Stirring Champions League final shows how far English game must advance

The Calvin report

Stirring Champions League final shows how far English game must advance
10 big questions for the British & Irish Lions to answer

10 big questions for the British & Irish Lions to answer

Warren Gatland's squad fly Down Under aiming to do justice to the expectations – and hoping the Wallabies stay in the pub
The Last Word: Golf must end the hypocrisy before its halo slips totally

The Last Word

Golf must end the hypocrisy before its halo slips totally