New Media Entrepreneur Rich Ord says the Associated Press is dead:
In the pre-Internet days the AP had little competition beyond a few other news syndicators like Reuters and UPI. The AP’s world has now changed forever with the advent of blogs and news aggregation sites.
Before you say, “That doesn’t mean he’s saying the AP is dead,” read this:
The AP’s relevance has disappeared. The AP’s business model has evaporated. The AP is dead, killed by blogs and news aggregation.
OK, there you have it. Straight from the horse’s mouth. Is he right?
In a way, I think he has a point. The AP is dead. But it’s also powerful and the powerful dead have an uncanny way of rising from the grave. The question is, Does the AP have the sense to know that now is the time for its resurrection?
To quote from Ord again:
(Actually, Ord quoting from the CEO of AP) ” We — the news industry — have come to that 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, or find ourselves on an ugly path to obscurity.”
” We have the power to control how our content flows on the Web. We must use that power if we’re to continue to be financially secure and independent enough to speak truth to power.”
From the sound of it, it seems that Tom Curley, CEO of AP, may actually have a clue. But Ord is arguing that he doesn’t. I think that he is both right and wrong. The old model of news journalism, where the AP pays writers and journalists to travel and write news stories, then distribute those news stories in print, is quite dead - or dying. Many newspapers’ subscriptions are on the decline. It’s just a matter of time before the daily newspaper is replaced with an entirely online version. But will that include the AP stories that have been a staple of daily journalism for the last 150 years?
It’s true that blogging and aggregation have breathed new life into traditional news and media. Just look at who is more respected - Matt Drudge or The New York Times? The Smoking Gun or Bob Woodward?
Don’t get me wrong. Woodward is a legend and still has clout. But what will be made of him in a decade from now? At some point he will just be a blip in history - like William Randolph Hearst. Today, Hearst has a family of newspapers named in his honor, but how many people actually look to him - the person - for a respectable icon? H.L. Mencken is quotable, but he is as dead as a door nail, so to speak.
But what of the AP?
The Associated Press will have to change its model to keep up with the times. I don’t think it will be entirely replaced by blogging - unless it doesn’t change. If the AP changes now and moves its current model to news aggregation online then there is hope. Otherwise, Ord is correct. AP is dead. Like Hearst and Mencken.
