Google News At 10: How The Algorithm Won Over The News Industry

Megan Garber | Nextgov | September 21, 2012

In April of 2010, Eric Schmidt delivered the keynote address at the conference of the American Society of News Editors in Washington, D.C. During the talk, the then-CEO of Google went out of his way to articulate -- and then reiterate -- his conviction that "the survival of high-quality journalism" was "essential to the functioning of modern democracy."

This was a strange thing. This was the leader of the most powerful company in the world, earnestly informing a roomful of professionals that he would prefer their profession not die. And yet the speech itself -- I attended it -- felt oddly appropriate in its strangeness...