AP Considers Making Content Require Payment

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AP Considers Making Content Require Payment

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 23, 2009 @06:30AM from the you-see-there-is-this-thing-called-web-2.0 dept.

TechDirt is reporting that the Associated Press is poised to be the next in a long line of news organizations to completely bungle their online distribution methods by making their content require payment. While this wouldn't happen for a while due to deals with others, like Google, to distribute AP content for free, even considering this is a massive step in the wrong direction. "Also, I know we point this out every time some clueless news exec claims that users need to pay, but it's worth mentioning again: nowhere do they discuss why people should want to pay. Nowhere do they explain what extra value they're adding that will make people pay. Instead, they think that if they put up a paywall, people will magically pay -- even though the paywall itself is what takes away much of the value by making it harder for people to do what they want with the news: to spread it, to comment on it, to participate in the story. Until newspaper execs figure this out, they're only going to keep making things worse."

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News by jetsci · 2009-02-23 06:31 · Score: 2, Funny

Because newspapers and the like are faring so well. This is a great idea. It will simply kill off the industry. No wonder that Chinese blogger is investigating murders.

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Bored at work? Play Game!
1. Re:News by jetsci · 2009-02-23 06:37 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  The man IS watching you...through the news he feeds you(it contains tiny microchips with GPS functionality). Consider a diet high in fiber.
  
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  Bored at work? Play Game!
2. Re:News by nog_lorp · 2009-02-23 10:04 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  But hey, (almost) all of that money was printed by the government at some point!
  So NPR is 100% funded by the government and counterfeiters!
I can't wait for headlines like this: by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-23 06:40 · Score: 4, Funny

Nukes fly over the city of...[click here to pay via PayPal for full story]
Maybe not a good idea by Vinegar+Joe · 2009-02-23 06:42 · Score: 2, Funny

This of how much they'll have to pay back for all those fake photos they keep publishing.

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"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Re:There once was a day by winkydink · 2009-02-23 06:53 · Score: 4, Funny

Hey - what color is the sky on this planet where news networks are accountable to their readers?

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"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Re:Its like watching an animal drown by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-23 06:55 · Score: 1, Funny

Simple solution!
Throw Dan Rather OFF a jet.
People would pay to see that.
Re:Independent journalism?? by Sponge+Bath · 2009-02-23 08:37 · Score: 2, Funny

...some whiny twat thinks that his world view is so right that he manufactures news to support it?
Whoa now, I'm sure ScuttleMonkey is doing his best.
Re:There once was a day by Jane+Q.+Public · 2009-02-23 09:19 · Score: 2, Funny

Really? So you are, what? 170 years old, or maybe 200 or so, that you remember this?

And what do you call a "major daily paper"? NY Times? Oakland Chronicle? The daily paper in my town?

Maybe your "major dailies" were an exception, maybe not. But MOST newspapers start out being ad-supported and given away on streetcorners. After all, it's hard to sell something to people until they learn that it has some value.