Google - friend or foe to the news industry?

The past year or so, especially in continental Europe, has seen a ‘war of nerves’ between Google and news publishers over the issue of content protection. Far-reaching agreements have been signed – at times seemingly more armistice than lasting peace. Are services such as Google News an existential threat to news publishers? Is the current fairly generalised economic malaise of the news industry ‘Google's fault’ or is it rather the consequence of radical technological change and a subsequent metamorphosis in news consumption habits and corporate advertising strategy?