Chief Economist Hal Varian writes on Google's public policy blog that the Web outlet did not bring down newspapers, which he contends have been on a downward spiral for decades.

“The news industry's financial problems started well before the web came along,” he writes. “Circulation has been falling since 1985 and circulation per household has been falling since 1947! Ad revenue for newspapers was roughly constant in real terms up until 2005, and ad revenue per reader actually increased up until that time. Since then, the drop in advertising rates due to the recession, coupled with a significant drop in circulation, has exacerbated newspapers' financial difficulties.”

Of course, Google News linking to all of that free newspaper Web content didn't help the print products' revenue.