Slate has a very interesting article/prediction/preview on the intersecting futures of the old and new media. It’s worth the time to read. If you haven’t considered the coming collision, this is a good article to see just how blurred the industries may become.
Private Capital’s proposal didn’t kill Google, but it signaled the newspaper industry’s vulnerability, which in turn set off a chain reaction that did slay the firm. By forcing a sale of the Knight Ridder 32-newspaper chain (Philadelphia Inquirer, San Jose Mercury News, Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, et al.), just as Google had slithered in with Google Base, Private Capital created a panic. Classified ads were a $15-billion-a-year business for daily newspapers, and the conventional wisdom held that the newspaper industry had no way to fight back against Google, let alone earlier interlopers eBay and craigslist.