Simon Waldman, Director of Digital Strategy for the Guardian Media Group in the UK, has posted a very insightful presentation about the intersection of the Internet and Web 2.0 on his blog. The text reflects a speech he gave to a German general media audience in Berlin. There is also a pdf version of the script of the presentation.

Simon makes the following arguments:

• Newspapers that want to survive need to embrace, exploit and excel in web 2.0. “There is no denying that our industry — particularly in Western Europe and North America — is structurally challenged, and that is almost entirely down to the net. . . . But I fundamentally believe that newspaper publishers who are prepared to experiment, innovate and invest online will create significant cultural and commercial value as a result of their efforts.”
• Internet moves quickly and probably a lot more quickly than the pace to which traditional media groups are accustomed. “Being online is like having a shop in a mall– you have to keep up with everyone around you, even if they’re not a direct competitor. Otherwise, you seem very tired, very quickly.”
• There are four axes of Web 2.0. “I know that there are all sorts of definitions of Web 2.0, but in my mind there are four key characteristics in the boom: Social networks, search and aggregation, collaboration and video.”
• Google is a frenemy. “Google and its impact on every sector of the economy’s attempt to grapple with the Internet are undeniable — and the newspaper industry perhaps more than most. Some of us see them as a competitor and a stealer of content; others see it as a source of traffic and revenue . . . . [B]ut all I will say is that defining and understanding a relationship with Google and other search players and aggregators is a crucial part of operating effectively in the online world.”
• There’s no turning back, even though most newspaper companies and traditional media groups might wish otherwise. “I wish Google would go back to being a nice, cuddly search engine that does no evil, rather than a global advertising bohemoth. Or at the very least, I wish they had to pay big bucks to carry our headlines and first paragraphs on Google News. I wish free classifieds sites would go away, or that the Internet has recruitment advertisers rushing to spend more rather than less. . . . [B]ut I also know that they are not going to happen. . . . The point is - this is about change. Not a gentle, start of the new school year, kind of change — but disruptive, shifting of tectonic plates kind of change.”

It’s good to see this kind of realistic optimism from the traditional media. There are obviously a lot of synergies between newspapers / media groups on the one hand, and search engines on the other. Indeed has The New York Times as an investor and strategic ally. Simply Hired has News Corp. Yahoo and Google are also increasingly trying to create cross-selling opportunities with newspaper groups.

But it’s also true that when we spoke to some investors initially - and even more recently - people seem to have the concern that search engines and aggregators “steal” their content, rather than they are partners that can redirect traffic to their businesses for less money than traditional media outlets, like newspapers, that charge a lot more for reaching target audiences.

In any case, it seems that the “slow death of newspapers” at the hands of search engines, aggregators and online classifieds sites is in the news a bit this week. Don Dodge has also an interesting post entitled “Online classified ads take $3.1 billion from newspapers,” which is review of an article in the Washington Post about the same topic. The post article is particularly interesting because it examines how vertical search engines such as Edgeio and Oodle are disrupting traditional classifieds businesses.

The bottom line: Search engines and aggregators are here to stay. Not all of us will survive, and most of us will be co-opted or bought. A few may become large, independent IPO-friendly companies. But the technological and economic disruption to traditional media companies can not be ignored or denied.