AP Cracks Down on Aggregators: Look Out Google

The Associated Press said Monday that it will sue news aggregators - read: Google - that use its content without permission, another effort to save what’s left of the newspaper industry.

The news cooperative didn’t specifically name Google in its statement but resentment has been brewing against Google and other Web aggregators that profit from AP’s content, specifically by placing ads on the portal pages where those stories are indexed and displayed.

In a statement, AP Chairman Dean Singleton said the news cooperative would work with portals and other partners who properly license content – and would pursue legal and legislative actions against those who don‘t. “We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories,“ Singleton said.

In January, Google pulled the plug on a print-ad project that started in 2006 with 50 newspaper partners and grew to more than 800. The idea was that advertisers could use Google to also place print ads, thus creating a new revenue stream for newspapers and producing more relevant advertising for consumers. Nice try. But in the end, it didn’t work.

The Associated Press held its annual meeting Monday morning in San Diego, as part of the Newspaper Association of America’s annual convention.

Ironically, Google CEO Eric Schmidt is scheduled to deliver the NAA’s closing keynote for the convention and is expected to offer his perspective on newspapers, journalism and Google’s role in the future of the newspaper industry.

I wonder if he’ll be introduced by Singleton or greeted with a round of “boos” from the audience.

Comments

[Mad Hedge F...:]

I bumped into Jim Lehrer last night, the legendary anchor of “The News Hour With Jim Lehrer” on PBS, as he breezed through the San Francisco Bay Area promoting his 22nd novel, “Oh, Johnny”. The ex-Marine, who’s first big story was covering the Kennedy assassination in Dallas, had some cogent observations on the current demise of the US newspaper industry. Print media have traditionally been the originators of the news, the guys who went to the city council meeting and took copious, accurate, notes. For this, the paper got full page ads from the local car dealers and every other retail business. Now the car dealers are going under. The proliferation of new media, from radio to TV, the Internet, and smart phones means that the monetization of this content has moved downstream to be reaped by others. Talk radio, weekend news programs, comedy shows, even congressional debates, and yes, blogs (guilty), are feeding off of this news fount for free. The originating newspaper maybe gets a penny of each dollar of revenue spawned by their stories. Newspapers now have no choice but to cut costs by firing journalists and moving online. Thomas Jefferson said that “an informed electorate is essential for a democracy”. The big question is, when all the journalists are gone, where will the news come from? I have suspected all along that Truth, Accuracy, and Neutrality will be the big casualties of all of this. They will go the way of the full service gas station, free check in luggage on airlines, and home delivery of newspapers by teenage boys on bicycles.

Apr 06 04:58 PM

[makeitwork:]

ask the RIAA how this strategy played out. not a good call.

Apr 06 05:50 PM