Online Public Relations Thoughts

 Google is salving its relations with news publishers by announcing it will pay $1 billion over the next three years for content.  Putting money on the table is a marketing and PR gesture that commands attention.  It is a public statement that the search giant is not trying to take away business from content publishers.  Still, there are skeptics.  Google is so massive it commands attention for whatever it does.  There are Google "haters" in key regulatory positions the world over who want to break up the near monopoly.  Google can't afford to be arrogant, not if it wants to preserve its business for the long-term.  Maybe this billion-dollar deal will quiet the critics for a time.  Maybe it won't.  But it is a better position from which to defend oneself than before.