Naturalmente: Information wants to be free, reporters want to be paid, Part 33

Ever since media czar Rupert Murdoch threw down the gauntlet and accused Google of stealing his companies' copyrighted material, Google has been trying to make nice, as well as make money.

In a piece in Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, Google CEO Eric Schmidt wrote in December, "We want to work with publishers to help them build bigger audiences, better engage readers, and make more money.

"Meeting that challenge will mean using technology to develop new ways to reach readers and keep them engaged for longer, as well as new ways to raise revenue combining free and paid access. I believe it also requires a change of tone in the debate, a recognition that we all have to work together to fulfill the promise of journalism in the digital age."

Now an Italian newspaper is reporting that Google is about to launch something called Newspass. La Repubblica says the application will let readers buy news content with a single password using micropayments or subscriptions and let publishers sell via Web, mobile and tablet devices.

The Google computerized translation of the page is a bit rough. For example, the Italian paper reports, "To prevent the risk of new accusations of hegemony, Google has already indicated to some publishers to be willing to share with companies that agree to participate in the system all the information that will result from its use: Although the processes of authentication, support and Billing will be handled by Mountain View, traffic data and user profiles to be shared with partners. And while the cost for using the platform has not yet been announced, Google suggests that most of the proceeds will be content producers."

You may skip down to 37:24 for some questions from editors for Schmidt at this year's American Society of News Editors. The question after mine is more to the point discussed above.