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At a Hollywood party last week, CEO Eric Schmidt of Google revealed the search giant's intentions to provide a "solution" to the collapsing newsprint industry.

"Schmidt is distinctly aware of the newsprint meltdown going on in an information world dominated by his company, and that [the Google News] system only works as long as there is someone to report the news that his system delivers to readers," wrote The Wrap's Sharon Waxman, after speaking directly with Schmidt.

"In about six months, the company will roll out a system that will bring high-quality news content to users without them actively looking for it."

Based on past purchases, search terms, sites visited and other criteria, users that visit Google's homepage will automatically be served news that interests them. And because likelihood of interest — and thus, readership — is higher than with untargeted news, Google believes it will be able to sell premium ads against premium content provided in this manner.

Asked whether news organizations involved with the program would make more money or receive a higher revenue-share on premium content, Schmidt said no. But he pointed out papers would glean more traffic from their existing content, ultimately raising ad rates.

Waxman remained skeptical about whether the scheme would be able to support sizable news organizations like the Times and the Post. "Online advertising would have to inflate in value by something like 10 times current rates" to support them, she observed.

Smaller, more nimble 'net-based organizations may be well served by the offering, however. And as larger orgs cut more staff, higher-quality journalists may migrate to such sites. "I think we will see a lot of these types of organizations popping up in the next year or two; all that lost talent needs somewhere to go," Waxman concluded.

Earlier this month Google launched Timeline, a feature that enables users to search Google News more effectively — by topic in chronological order, for example. Search can be refined to specific times, magazines, newspapers or blogs.

The innovation comes a mere two months after The New York Times launched Article Skimmer, a prototype digital Sunday issue, suited to users that skim news online. The experience was presented as comparable to reading a spread-out Sunday Times over brunch, except without "the crinkle of the paper, the circular stain of coffee, and the smell of newsprint."