Microsoft could pay USD15m to WSJ to abandon Google - Rumour

Wed Nov 25 2009, 09:02 AM UTC

If rumours of a search pact between News Corp and Microsoft are true, Microsoft would need to pay around USD15m to the news provider to remove the Wall Street Journal from Google search. Getting News Corp's key business publication removed from Google would be a significant victory for Microsoft in its bid to boost its share of the search market.

Business Insider estimates that 25% of the WSJ’s online traffic, which generates USD100m a year for the publication, comes from Google. It suggests that losing traffic from Google would cost the paper between 10% and 15% of its total online revenues. This means a payment of between USD10m and USD15m could be enough to persuade News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch to remove his flagship US publication from Google.

A sum of USD15m would be a small price to pay compared with the millions Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said he is prepared to invest in increasing Bing’s market share. It may be in Microsoft’s interests to pay for the privilege of being the principle search portal for finding News Corp content. The two companies are thought to be in talks about a search pact, but it is not known whether they have discussed financial terms.

News Corp has indicated it intends to remove its publications from Google’s search index within months. Starting with the WSJ might provide a valuable test case for News Corp as it tries to establish a new funding model for online news.

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