In their 1998 paper, the Googlers cited Prof. Ben Bagdikian's theory of Media Monopoly. Page and Brin swallowed the idea that U.S. media markets were controlled by a cabal of corporations, manipulating content to protect advertisers, and stifling competitive entry to protect their shareholders. According to Bagdikian, just four megacompanies share the U.S. Media Monopoly: Disney, News Corp., Time Warner and Viacom. (News Corp. is the corporate parent of Dow Jones, publisher of Barron's.) Resistance was futile.
If Brin and Page had been deterred by the bleak forecast offered by Bagdikian, Google today would not be worth some 90% of the capitalization of the four media oligarchs combined.
That's GMU's Thomas Hazlett in Barron's.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment