June 17, 2008

AP vs. Bloggers Update

Patterico catches the Associated Press doing what the AP threatened to sue bloggers for doing. Meanwhile, now that the AP is proposing that bloggers should pay it per-word for excerpting as few as five words from AP content, some folks are suggesting bloggers charge the AP for using content from blogs. Like I said when I first noted the AP's attack on bloggers: Bet on the bloggers.

By the time this fight is over, the AP may well be offering to pay bloggers to link to AP stories. And it will be too late. While the Associated Press has lots of talented journalists on its payroll, the middleman part of AP's current business model, built around syndicating member newspapers' content and sharing it with other member newspapers, is rapidly being rendered obsolete by the Internet, as almost all middleman businesses have been, are or soon will be.

Rewritten versions of stories that are already on the web for free just isn't a product worth much these days.

Once newspapers figure out that they don't need the AP to serve as the middleman and clearinghouse for sharing their stories and photos with other papers, taking a cut of the revenue - all they need is a good central database and accounting program - the AP will find itself on the endangered species list.

The AP would be wise to shift its resources now to generating more original content, such as covering stories that most newspapers can't get to. High-quality original content is still worth something these days.

Update: Ironically, in January 2007, the AP syndicated reports written by a group of Media Bloggers Association member bloggers covering the Scooter Libby trial. The AP did not compensate the bloggers, though it benefited from their work.

Update: I've been informed that the story that the AP wants to charge bloggers by the word is "completely wrong." Let's hope so, though their threat of lawsuits for copyright infringement does suggest they want to be paid when bloggers use their content. (Never mind that a blog link which drives traffic to an AP story does "pay" the AP and the member site hosting the story in non-cash value.) The central point of this post - that the AP's middleman rewrite service business is becoming obsolete - stands.