Are the Big Publishers Acting Like Robert Mugabe?

According to an article on AdAge.com titled “Media Giants to Top Google Results”, the big traditional publishers are pushing Google to prioritise their content in the search engine results:

Do these companies have a point or are these the last desperate efforts of a crumbling monopoly to hang on to power?

Over the weekend I had dinner with a friend who had fled from Zimbabwe after receiving one too many threats from the increasingly unpredictable security forces. He likened the actions of the big publishers to those of the Zimbabwean leader, Robert Mugabe.

He suggested that for many years Mugabe ran the country with the full support of the native people. He was in total control and could see no reason for change.

However the country started to fall behind their neighbours and pressure grew on Mugabe to revamp the economy and government to keep up with the changing world around them. Rather than looking to those outside his country for help he sought the support of his closest allies who all had a vested interest in maintaining their power and the status quo.

Changes were made, but rather than making the situation better, they made it far worse. Famine, violence and hyper inflation followed.

Mugabe and his cronies immediately blamed what was happening on external forces. It was everyone’s fault but his own. Today his powerbase continues to shrink as the country crumbles around his ears.

My friend then compared this situation to the actions and attitues of the traditional publishers.

He argued that the last comment from the article above – “(online publishers) are essentially parasites off the true producers of content” – sums up the big publisher’s attitude to the internet and bloggers over the last ten years.

Today the pressure for change in the publishing industry is unrelenting; readership is falling, revenues are tumbling and costs are rising, but rather than look at themselves to ask what they are doing wrong, the big publishers are bent on blaming external forces for their failings. Google, bloggers and weak copyright laws are all in the firing line.

Like the music industry before them, instead of looking to successful online companies for help, they are looking to their in-house lawyers to protect a market they believe is their birthright.

I asked my friend “Is it too late for them to change course and embrace the internet, user generated content and the new online business models?”

“Of course not” he said

“Will they change?”

“Unlikely. Like in Zimbabwe it will take a change of leadership before any transformation will happen”.

“Will these changes come too late to save this industry?”

“The jury is out, but the longer change doesn’t happen the worse the situation will get and the longer the journey back will be”.

Is my friend right? What are your thoughts?