Google’s Chief Economist Understands Media Better than Some Industry Executives Do

By: Mathew Ingram | paidContent

Hal Varian, the chief economist at Google and a former MIT professor, isn’t a practising journalist and has never run a media company (unless you see his current employer as one, which many people increasingly do). But he knows a lot about information theory and network effects, and he made it clear during a recent presentation in Italy — where he received a journalism award — that he has a better grasp of what those two factors are doing to the media industry than many of those who run media companies.