Google said Tuesday it will limit how many free articles users can access from subscription sites.

The announcement came as Microsoft and News Corp. are reportedly in talks to partner in a way that boosts traffic to Microsoft's search engine Bing and allows News Corp. to make money from content it generates from its publications, including the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones.

The two companies may or may not be discussing the possibility of News Corp. moving its content to Bing and not featuring it in Google search results, depending on which news source you read. First, the Financial Times and New York Times reported last week that the two sides are talking about moving News Corp. content to Microsoft and cutting off the Google spout. This week, the Associated Press and Reuters both said at the partnership being discussed would not exclude articles from Google.

It's as minute-by-minute as the Tiger Woods car crash.

They're negotiating. What's driving all this is the loss of revenue for mainstream media, as classified advertising has fled to online sites such as Craigslist and companies are cutting advertising in mainstream media. The vanishing revenue helped lead to the closure of one of Seattle's daily newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, earlier this year.