At the AlwaysOn OnMedia Summit, Mark Cuban, HDNet and Mavericks owner, warned newspapers that if they continue to make their content available free to search engines et. al., they'll be sucked dry by the "vampires" stealing their content. Unless users are typing in your URL, "people just default to Google. You reinforce actions that hurt your brand and reinforce Google's brand."

Cuban inveighed, "Unless you get people to type your URL, you don’t have a customer" -- nobody you can convert to pay. Newspapers compound the problem by "sending your content to ad networks diminishing your content even more."

"If you turn your neck to a vampire, they’re going to bite. The vampires are going to think there’s a never ending supply of idiots. No offense. Show some balls," he concluded. Vampires won't change their habits, so publishers have to "take a chance" and turn off the spiders so they can't search their content. "See what happens." The worst thing that can happen is that publishers can turn the spiders back on. The best thing would be, essentially, newspapers will laugh all the way to the bank.

"You have to take a chance, you have to follow the money; you can’t be the dumb blonde, male or female, showing your neck to the vampires," he added. 

He also had advice for publishers regarding iPad. "Don't wait for them to sell a critical mass number of them." Ask yourselves, "who is the core audience for the iPad and how can I design my content for them?" Ultimately, it will expand the audience for content. Newspapers may do the "school version" of their newspaper geared to younger audiences. Whatever the audience, "Gear your content to the form factor." 

The mistake newspapers typically make is trying to translate their current form factor to the next device. In his view, that would be the Amazon Kindle. "The iPad is. The Kindle isn't." He added, "Take advantage of this opportunity to redesign and recreate.... Turn your back to the vampires." They'll be left with having to pay publishers for the content they need, he asserted. "Good content always has a place."