Owning history – one newspaper at a time


Google made yet another of its content-annexing announcements today:

Today, we’re launching an initiative to make more old newspapers accessible and searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives.

For consumers, what’s not to like (if you’re a lover of accidental monopolies). For Google, the more searchworthy content, the more advertising to sell around search. For newspapers? Listen for the sucking sound.