Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, says his company considered buying into the newspaper industry but decided against it because it crossed the line between technology and content.
Schmidt told FT.com his company is focusing on helping newspapers develop better online properties. While it looked at using its charitable arm to support the business --- and evaluated purchasing newspapers outright --- it decided acquisitions were too expensive or carried too many liabilities.
He isn't bullish on the concept of micropayments for general forms of journalism, but is more open-minded about it for specialized forms.
