Richard Gingras (@richardgingras), head of News Products at Google, spoke at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard today. I liveblogged it, so let me know where the errors are and I'll fix them. Ann Marie…

great read - head of google news on the future of news - #in

RT @timoreilly: Really great thinking about the future of news from Richard Gingras, head of Google News

"Richard has very simple advice that still isn't practiced by most news companies: "Capacity is unlimited. Creating content is expensive. Use it all.""

The Head of #Google News @RichardGingras on the Future of News

Got ideas on what the news system *should* become? Set aside some time and study this talk by Google's @RichardGingras.

Google's mission is to connect the dots between a consumer's interests and information needs with knowledge, whether by search or social.

Internally, they think of Google News as a freshness engine.

We all need to be entrepreneurs as we navigate through this period, and that means taking risks and being comfortable making mistakes. We need to learn to understand when we've made a mistake as quickly as possible, and change our approach. Disruption is the core of this conversation.

Change in distribution caused the disruption in media. Distribution frames your business model in the media business; it is everything.

Richard Gingras, head of News Products at Google, spoke at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard today.

GINGRAS NO DUMMY

"Richard argues strongly for evergreen story pages. It is not the brand, not the site, but the story itself that is the lifeblood online. Publishers should not think about editions, or even ephemeral streams of articles, but rather living story pages. Story pages are the most valuable real estate." ... CORRECT, THIS IS WHY DELICIOUS WAS A BILLION DOLLAR BIZ, SQUANDERED, THEY HAD THE BEST "TOPIC" PAGES OF ALL, BEFORE DB DESTROYED BY SPAMMERS

"Adrian Holovaty, Founder of EveryBlock, was an intern for the Washington Post back around 2007. The Post published a 45,000 word series on DC public schools after months of investigation ("that probably 45,000 people read, but the right people"). Adrian built a site that multiplied the value of the reporters' efforts, where readers could look up their childrens' schools. Sadly, the Post didn't maintain the site died after the story passed. Richard would like to see investigative reports written in Fusion tables and query strings rather than (or in addition to) narrative. These projects actually present monetiziation opportunities; with the school-lookup example, you know the viewer has kids in that specific part of the city." ... YEP, LOTS OF GOLD THERE, UNMINED

"Media companies have learned that affirmation is more powerful than information. " ... PANDERING RATHER THAN INFORMING, THEY MEAN

I read RT @NancyProctor: RT @Marilyn_Res: The head of Google News on the future of news http://t.co/SoeoSerj via @civicMIT #si20 #museweb

Great thinking about the future of news from #RichardGingras, head of Google News via @timoreilly

@MarkWNichols: Richard Gingras on the future of news http://t.co/ZF02KGHo "companies must disambiguate their content and business models"

@timoreilly: Really great thinking about the future of news http://t.co/reOqggMv from Richard Gingras, head of Google News

Really great thinking about the future of news http://t.co/reOqggMv from Richard Gingras, head of Google News

Some publishers say, "They bought it before, they'll buy it again," or "We need to get people back into the habit of paying for news." But consumers never did pay the true costs. [Directly, anyway. Indirectly and unwittingly, well, that's another story.]

Really great thinking about the future of news from Richard Gingras, head of Google News

Really great thinking about the future of news from Richard Gingras, head of Google News

Richard [Gringras, head of news at Google] doesn't believe the vertical model of a newspaper makes sense going forward. He compares the metropolitan newspapers' all-things to all-people product to content portals for specific communities. This strategy doesn't make sense given the possibilities. Yahoo!'s initial success was as a portal. But portals have disappeared online as consumers have learned to navigate the web on their own and found the niche sites they love.</p><p>

Paywalls are not a panacea. Richard's not against experimentation with paywall models. The New York Times was smart, he says, in designing its paywall with many levers to adjust revenue vs. traffic flow. It's not there yet, but they can experiment and find what works. He appreciates those who are looking at paywalls in a more nuanced way. Some publishers say, "They bought it before, they'll buy it again," or "We need to get people back into the habit of paying for news." But consumers never did pay the true costs.

Gringras essentially goes around giving much the same talk. This doesn't make it wrong.

Future of journalism:@googlenews . Dinosaur: @globeandmail

The Future of Google News -- does google news have > 1bln monthlies or google products in general? via @prismatic

RT @johncthompson: The Head of Google News on the Future of News http://t.co/puoVCTWe via @zite "iPad a fatal distraction for publishers"

The Head of Google News on the Future of News | via @civicMIT #journalism #futureofnews

Richard Gingras (@richardgingras), head of News Products at Google, spoke at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard today.