America’s Next CTO (i.e. Google’s Eric Schmidt) Wants to Save the Newspaper Industry

By Kyle Austin

January 7th, 2009

Google’s Eric Schmidt doesn’t own the “news” yet, nor is he America’s CTO, yet; but like Rupert, he would like to save the newspaper industry

Are newspapers vital to America’s future? If you answer yes, would Eric Schmidt be better suited in his current role as Google’s CEO or as America’s first CTO-  to better assist the newspaper industry in integrating with the Web?

It’s an interesting question to raise, and although Adam Lashinsky didn’t ask Eric (Google’s PR folks wouldn’t let that fly), when he recently sat down with him , he did get some interesting answers from the Google CEO on why he and Google want newspapers to survive.

In fact, this specific quote he got from Schmidt, illustrates how important he views the newspaper industry in terms of maintaining democracy in the states and abroad:

Fortune: What if the newspaper industry does go down?

Eric Schmidt: To me this presents a real tragedy in the sense that journalism is a central part of democracy. And if it can’t be funded because of these business problems, then that’s a real loss in terms of voices and diversity.

Full Q&A over at Fortune.com.

Entry Filed under: Digital media relations, Mainstream media