The new owner of the Tribune Co., Sam Zell (pictured) says it’s time for newspapers to stop giving away their stories to popular search engines such as Google. Zell made his comments in interviews with the Washington Post before and after a speech he delivered Thursday (April 5) at Stanford Law School in Palo Alto. Zell said Google wouldn’t be very profitable if newspapers joined together to stop Google from stealing their content. Regarding Google, Zell said:

We’re going to see new formulas in the immediate [future] that reflect the cost benefit.

Google and Yahoo have financial arrangements with wire services, such as the Associated Press, to provide news stories and photos. On Friday, Google settled a copyright-infringement lawsuit with Agence France-Presse, which had alleged that Google posted news summaries, headlines and photos without permission.