Google dropped idea of buying newspaper: CEO

Google considered buying a newspaper but dropped the idea

Google considered buying a newspaper but dropped the idea, the head of the Internet search giant said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday.Google chairman and chief executive officer Eric Schmidt said the California company had also considered using its charitable arm, Google.org, to support news businesses seeking non-profit status but was now unlikely to do so.He told the FT that Google had looked at buying a newspaper but concluded that potential acquisition targets were too expensive or carried excessive liabilities.The Mountain View, California-based search and advertising company, he said, was ‘trying to avoid crossing the line’ between technology and content.Instead, Google was working with The Washington Post and other newspapers to improve their online products and with publishers to make their websites ‘work better’ for online advertising, Schmidt said.He told the FT that ‘clever ideas’ about sheltering newspapers in non-profit structures had been suggested to Google.org but ‘are unlikely to happen without some massive, massive set of corporate bankruptcies.’US newspapers have been grappling with a steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.