We're From Google and We're Here to Help

As newspapers continue to die from a thousand paper cuts—falling circulation, declining ad sales, changing reading habits, a profusion of online aggregators who borrow their content and keep their readers—you'd think anyone offering a solution would be seen as a savior. Then again, what if the savior is the organization most responsible for their demise?

Enter: Google Checkout.

According to the Nieman Journalism Lab's Zachary M. Seward, Google has outlined a plan for a "micropayment" system for content, or, as Google puts it a "vision of a premium-content ecosystem." The plan was presented to the Newspaper Association of America.

Earlier this year, Google killed its Print Ads unit, which was supposed to help sell ads in the print editions of newspapers. "While we hoped that Print Ads would create a new revenue stream for newspapers and produce more relevant advertising for consumers, the product has not created the impact that we—or our partners—wanted,” Spencer Spinnell, director of the project said at the time.

Following that, Google News started placing ads alongside the content it aggregates from newspapers, a move that angered many publishers who felt the ad revenue should go to the creators, not the aggregators. In a February 2009 article by Miguel Helft and Brian Stelter in the New York Times, a Google spokesman said, "we strongly support journalism… We’ve got teams of people who are working with hundreds of publishers to find new and creative ways to help them make money from compelling online content."

If Google helps itself make money along the way, well, so be it.