Associated Press: Smart, or NOT, with Google, Yahoo Deals
No one escaped the new media indignation unleashed by Tom Curley, Associated Press CEO, at a dinner this week hosted by the Columbia School of Journalism. No one, except Rupert Murdoch, that is.
From Sam Zell to beat reporters, Curley lamented the current fashion to villify “dead tree media.” In a wide ranging speech debating the disrupted news economy, the ultimate irony for Curley is that while the news is (still) hot, the news business is not. Curley challenged “the news industry” to follow the right “fork in the road”:
We must take bold, decisive steps to secure the audiences and funding to support journalism’s essential role in both our economy and democracy.
Here ye, here ye? Curley applauded Murdoch for “stepping up,” but took particular aim at “the portals”:
The portals are runing off with our best stuff, and we’re afraid or unable to make or enforce deals that drive fair value.
Nevertheless, Curley countered his own damn the portals talk with the very self-depreceating commentary he lambasted his news industry peers for!:
Our institutional arrogance has done more to harm us that any portal.
So what’s the AP deal, literally, with Google and Yahoo? Curley plays the good cop, bad cop:
Great content always has needed great distribution. These days that means deals have to be done with portals, bu the deals have to be good deals. Most news organizations did deals years ago for promotion. The deals are one-sided. Job one for industry leaders should be doing whatever it takes to get a fair deal.
AP hosted by Google? Fair deal, or not? AP distributed by Yahoo? Smart deal, or not?
Curley teases: “We hope to strike some attractive new distribution deals with valuable advertising support.”
Will AP brought to you by Google and Yahoo soon be deemed (UN)attractive then?
READ MORE: What Google News? AP: Google Plays Second Fiddle to Yahoo and AP Sues VeriSign: News Aggregation ‘Business Model’ at Risk
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