News Corp vs Google is merely a battle...

... the war is between old and new.

To quote Mark Sigal from O'Reilly

Analog (old) media is all about managing scarcity by controlling distribution

whereas

Digital (new) media. ... content, in tandem with un-tethered distribution and pretty good search/retrieval functions, operates in complete disregard for the old media-based pricing models that preceded it

And as we know, when they meet.... the results are very disruptive!

Its therefore an analog vs. digital fight we are in the midst of. Up until now, digital has won over the protectionist activities of 20th Century analog-based business models.

The hard-fought battlegrounds have been:

• music
  A clear win to digital, where iTunes and the MP3 format were the tank and gunpowder
  
• small ads
  Another clear win to digital, with a soldier called Craig and the mighty eBay the victors
  
• radio
  A draw, where radio has been allowed to live (but limp in its damaged vehicle with a license that could expire at any time in the future)

But.... the war is getting closer and closer to the centre-piece of the analog media's territory.... television. So the analogs have drawn their line of battle , along the far-reaching fields of newspaper control.

It is here they have decided to stand and attack back, to preserve what they have and fight one last and (possibly) long battle... or risk losing everything (AKA: mainly the value of their shareholdings in their companies).