AP Copies Google: "If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em"
In what I must admit is a shocking turn of events, the Associated Press has moved byond attacking Google and others it has branded as content “thieves” to embrace a page from its opponents’ playbook.
Literally.
In an internal AP memo obtained by Talking Points Memo, a senior managing editor, Mike Oreskes, states that when two AP reporters found that one bookstore had inadvertently placed Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue” on sale five days before the official release date, “They bought a copy, ripped it from its spine and scanned it into the system so it could be read and electronically searched. A [wire story] moved within 40 minutes, followed quickly by multiple leads as details were gleaned from the 413-page manuscript.”
Wow.
First of all, kudos to the AP.
At a time when the wire service also has been laying off scores of staffers, it also is acting like it is a news-gathering organization for the 21st Century.
But, when you think about it, isn’t this rather similar to the type of copyright violation that the AP, and print publishers generally, have been screaming about so loudly all year long?
I put this question to Paul Colford, AP’s Director of Media Relations, who told me via email:
“The book, purchased several days ahead of its on-sale date by the AP, was scanned after the first spot stories moved on the wire from New York so that staffers in bureaus in Washington and Alaska with knowledge of various parts of Gov. Palin’s life and political career could read those relevant sections the next day. This led to the AP’s Fact Check of the book last Friday (Nov. 13).
“The book for was not scanned for public consumption.”
I’ll repeat what I said earlier: Kudos to the AP. No problem here at all with what they did. Keep doing this kind of creative reporting, as opposed to blaming Google and the aggregators for your problems, and you’ll win a lot of us back to your side.
Related Bnet Media coverage of the AP:
Bankrupt Tribune Co. Experiments Going “AP-Free”
The AP’s Latest Flabbergasting Idea
Note to AP, Media: Bloggers/Search Engines R Your Best Friends
AP’s Top News Stories for August 5th, in Four Words Or Less
Top AP Business/Tech Stories for August 4th (in 4 Words or Less)
AP’s Biz Model is Just a Four-letter Word
In addition to serving as a BNET Media analyst/blogger, David Weir is a veteran journalist and the author of several books. Weir is a co-founder and vice-president of the Center for Investigative Reporting, as well as an editorial board member of The Nation.
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