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It’s old news that the AP is gearing up to sue aggregators. But ever since the story broke (two days ago? Really?), I’ve been quietly laughing about why this seems to be happening. And, now that I’m not studying for an exam… well, it’s time to blog about it.
Again, it’s nothing new that newspaper readership is declining, that newspapers are folding, etc. Now, it looks like the AP is taking a stance for the newspapers, right? With decreased paid readership, somebody needs to take a stand to protect the newspapers’ quality content from the likes of aggregators!
If that’s what you’re thinking, I suggest trying on a new pair of lenses.
Think, for a second, back to the heyday of the newspaper. When you got your fill of local, national, and global news… before the internet. Hell, even before AP/Reuters started standardizing the content. Articles were written by authors you recognized and trusted… maybe even knew. They were, without a doubt, written by a member of the community you were a part of — after all, your community was reading and writing the same newspaper you held in your hands.
Then the AP/Reuters/other syndication services came along. And they made everything a lot cheaper and a lot simpler: if a story broke, they’d have the facts and they could quickly get the news to your paper’s (and a boatload of other papers’) editor(s).
Your local newspaper suddenly had a quality story without having to fact-check the article. You, up in Toronto, were reading the same stuff as your cousin in Boston and your nephew in London.
But the individualized, local flavour your paper once had when reporting these events? Gone.
Now, aggregators are being blamed for harvesting and unfairly using content. But imagine using Google, or any other web service, to compare the differences between local reactions to a story. These aggregating tools, all of a sudden, are providing a unique service that our current news-making (and news-serving) model could really take advantage of.
But instead, we have countless copies of syndicated articles clogging up our inter-tubes.
Call me a child of the information age, but I’ve never thought of a newspaper as simply a way to get the news. I’ve always thought the Montreal Gazette should be the Montreal Gazette. The Toronto Star should be the Toronto Star.
If all I wanted was a universal report on current affairs, I wouldn’t open either of these… or any other local paper.
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Comments
04.09.09
I don't know... local flavor counts for something when dealing with local events.
But I don't see the value of a local spin on something that happens half a county, or half a world away.
Even local 'flavor' is just another way to describe local news. New is news, regardless of who reports it. That's the golden standard right? Anything else is 'spin' that belongs in the editorial pages.
04.09.09
I don't think there was much investigative journalism from a global perspective via my local newspaper even thirty years ago.
There is a reason to aggregate AP stories, most local newspapers do not have journalists on foreign soil, or even in other states.
Most local news papers cover their local news quite well without aggregation, including my local newspaper, but local news coverage of news they are not breaking, and aren't present to actually report, in is not really news, is it?
Unless I'm missing something, local news opines on global and national news in op-eds, and some do it quite well. I'm not really down with a whole paper full of local opinion.
I think some people, those who still read a print media daily and choose only their local paper as a news source, want national and global news from a reliable source and they also want local news, which they get from localjournalists, and then if they want to listen to the local opions they go to the op-ed page.
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