Google has written a letter to the US government in response to the Federal Trade Commission's document, "Potential Policy Recommendations To Support The Reinvention Of Journalism", which studied how journalism is being affected by the move to electronic readership over the past decade.

The FTC study showed that revenues from advertising, which constitute 80 per cent of newspapers' revenues, have fallen by 45 per cent since 2000. Notably, classified advertising fell from $19.6bn in 2000 to just $6bn in 2009.

The government has come up with a number of proposals to save journalism. These include cutting down on search engines' and aggregators' rights to news content, and creating an antitrust exemption that would allow newspapers to form a paywall cartel. They also recommend charging search engines and aggregators for accessing newspaper content.

However, Google said the FTC's proposals are harmful to consumers and that "business problems require business solutions rather than regulatory ones." It added that it is the publishers' responsibility to attract and keep users engaged with their online offerings.