Rupert Murdoch's effort to change the economics of the internet by stopping Google linking to stories in his newspapers looks, at first glance, like an act of self-destruction. That is how News Corp's negotiations on a deal to favour Microsoft's search engine Bing instead is viewed by many rivals and technology experts.
On closer inspection, however, Mr Murdoch's initiative has an intriguing logic for other media groups facing the market power of Google. It may not achieve his desired result but it indicates how little he has to lose in revenue terms by experimenting.
Most publishers, including newspapers, have so far made their stories available free online. Their strategy has been to make up for lost revenues from print subscriptions by gaining larger audiences online. The Guardian newspaper, for example, now reaches 30m unique users a month.