For those of us who love to keep up with the news in the world via the internet, it seems we find a friend in Reuters who believes in the positive things bloggers,readers, newsers,and search engines want: free access to the news wires. AP will now charge $12.50 for every 5 words or less quoted from their material via the internet.
Link-Love
We have been hearing for a good while how the AP has been upset with Google and bloggers who make a living off their news reports. The AP now stands to lose internet traffic to Reuters because it wants to charge bloggers and other notable news sources on the web for excerpts quoting their articles.
It stands to reason what they are saying at Web Pro News: Ahern at Reuters: "I believe in the link economy. Please feel free to link to our stories — it adds value to all producers of content. I believe you should play fair and encourage your readers to read-around to what others are producing if you use it and find it interesting. Chris Crum at Web Pro News: "With a major publishing force like Reuters publicizing this kind of position, you have to wonder if it will get other major publishers like the AP its like-minded peers to re-evaluate their position.
Either way, Reuters is bound to get a lot of link love after this. That will be great for the news organization's traffic"...end quote~
In my own opinion, Reuters gives a better overall view of world affairs and doesn't seem to show much bias in their reporting as does the AP which is American based. Also, the AP doesn't seem to understand that it isn't all about content theft...which is wrong without attribution, but if anyone quotes you and links back to what you say...that's great for everyone. Search engines also are savvy enough to know where the original article or quote had its origination.
Let's give a hand to Reuters and to Google, and a big thumbs down to the AP for going the way of the now unloved record industry.
