Those charged with the task of shifting journalism into the digital space are typically alarmed at the spartan, otherworldly business environment upon arrival.
Financing journalism in that new environment is made possible typically through several other initiatives that don't necessarily adjoin the world of reporting --- digital entities and utilities that gain revenue through search or other ways, and not the direct-revenue-for-consuming-journalism one might expect.
In some ways, the situation is not all that different than some of the workaround financing in conventional media --- the classified, advertorial and service journalism in some sections of a newspaper, or the paid programming on broadcast outlets, generate substantial revenue with only a portion of the programming expenses, so they help fuel newsrooms and are not only useful to the audience but to the creators.
Which is why the new Business Week piece on Google feels like relief in opening the lid on what the behemoth is doing to the world of advertising, including the advertising for the press. Someone is actually saying clearly that certain precepts --- that journalism can be paid for by adjacent Google ads and display --- are "idiotic." And someone is also saying that Google is scraping a lot of the necessary funds away. And that Google is essentially taking a free press and monetizing it largely for itself.
