Google puts TV listings on the menu

First it was newspapers dropping data-heavy listings of stock market activity.  Next could be the weekly TV listings that Web-savvy publishers like the Washington Post still publish. 

One of the first to unplug, and save newsprint, is The New York Times.  Advertising Age points out earlier this month the Times killed its guide and beefed up its TV listings online through a deal with Tribune Media Services' Zap2it.com.  The Times' move can't be good news for News Corp.'s TV Guide which continues to struggle.

(Another shoe dropped at mid-morning.  The Times-owned Boston Globe said it would replace weekday stock and mutual fund listings in the newspaper with new financial news features and services in print and online.  "Readers have been turning to the Internet at an accelerating pace for stock and mutual fund quotes," said Martin Baron, the Globe's editor.  Surprisingly, the news release did not say the Globe plans to print any stock quotes at all.)

And now Google wants into the game.  Eric Schmidt told the UK's The Business, he's planning a version of the company's search engine formatted for the TV screen. “You have to look at what an electronic programme guide is. It is just a search engine and that is what Google does best,” he said.

Disclaimer: I own shares of Google, which I bought $25 (each!) higher.