It is an idea floated by International Data Group CEO Pat Kenealy, no less. He gave a speech recently at American Business Media conference, and also talked about Google’s effect on trade media companies and magazine industry…

In the latest issue of Media Business magazine (it is available as a PDF and rather cumbersome to download, as the whole magazine in split into two PDFs…the Google story is broken in the middle), a story discusses the Google conundrum for magazine publishers…and quotes Kenealy on his speech at the ABM conference: “Kenealy has floated the idea that American Business Media member companies should agree to block Google
and other search engines from crawling their sites. Together, these business media companies could develop their own search algorithm, or they might cut a more favorable revenue-sharing deal with an existing search engine, he said.” IDG is famous for its rather regressive linking policies: read this: “IDG Prepares Case Against Deep Linkers”; this: “IDG Prevents Competitor from Linking to Its Sites”; this: “Deep Linking: Some Thoughts”

Here’s the crux of the matter: “Is Google friend or foe?” Bill McGorry, exec VP-licensing and electronics group at Reed Business Information, summed up
the ambivalence that many b2B media executives feel toward search engines when he coined a new word: “Google is probably a ‘froe.’ … My opinion is that they’re probably more friend than foe.”