Google News' success at the recent EPpy Awards has sparked a debate about the role of automated news services in journalism.
Google News was shortlisted in the category for best internet news service with more than one million monthly visitors, an award eventually won by WashingtonPost.com. Google News is an automated news aggregation service that delivers news headlines according to keywords selected by users.
Writing on EditorandPublisher.com, editor Carl Sullivan reports that MarketWatch.com president and CEO Larry Kramer received loud applause when he criticised the inclusion of Google News in the shortlist.
"While admiring Google's technological know-how, Kramer and others in the audience felt strongly that the EPpys should reward the hard work of human journalists, not the programming skills of Silicon Valley," writes Mr Sullivan.