Google has a vested interest in making sure that quality journalism not only survives, but thrives in the decades ahead. CEO Eric Schmidt has identified the demise (and maybe even death) of the daily newspaper industry and the decline of journalism in general as a concern for Google. As such, the giant has to be exploring ways in which it can achieve its business objectives by strategically support efforts to maintain a sufficient quantity of high-quality journallistic content on the web. One of the means by which it was trying to do so was helping the newspapers sell advertising in its newspapers. But the effort has not been successul and Google announced this week that it was scrapping the initiative. This stands as yet another blow to an industry that is quickly running out of supporters and alternatives to its dismal business model.