German publishers fight back

Another case of the publishers fighting back.

FT Media reports that

Germany’s newspaper publishers are considering launching joint websites in which to sell articles – a move to defend themselves against search engines such as Google that have put newspaper sales under pressure by offering free news online.

and the report adds that

Some of the nation’s largest print houses – such as Axel Springer, M. DuMont Schauberg, Verlagsgruppe Georg Von Holtzbrinck and WAZ Mediengruppe – are in initial talks about how to sell content on the web.