One of Google’s big arguments for aggregating news stories and presenting them on its own site is the practice drives traffic to the originating site–it’s a win-win situation. News providers, on the other hand, are not so sure of Google’s claim. They’re seeing declines in readership in the real world, and a hard sell for revenues in the digital world. This while Google continues to haul in money by the bucket-full.

Outsell, a research firm, has released it’s third annual News Users’ Report, and it seems to agree with the news providers: Google isn’t doing them any real favor. According to Outsell, which surveys the real world and digital news preferences of 2,787 U.S. news consumers, 44 percent of visitors to Google News scan headlines, read the brief synopsis, and leave it at that–they never click through to the originating news site. No click-through, no traffic. No traffic, no ad revenue. According to Outsell analyst Ken Doctor, “Though Google is driving some traffic to newspapers, it’s also taking a significant share away.”

Revenue problems for newspapers are exacerbated by the move from print to digital. According to Outsell, 57 percent of users go to digital sources, up from 33 percent a few years ago. Online traffic, therefore, is even more crucial if news providers are to make a buck (or are to survive).

Google may be the least of new providers’ worries. The report also says only 10 percent news users would be willing to pay if a subscription to a print version is necessary for digital access. And 75 percent say they’ll seek their news elsewhere if a paid subscription is required for online content.

Image Credit: Google

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