Friday, August 31, 2007

ap.google.com Today Google began directly publishing stories from AP and five other news services. Click the image to see for yourself.

Here's a quick roundup of some business news from the overlap of traditional mainstream media and online companies:

1. Google, news services strike direct syndication deal. Today Google has begun hosting on its site material from five major news services: AP, Agence France-Presse, the UK Press Association, and the Canadian Press. The full content of these articles will appear on Google News, instead of only linking to news org sites where those stories have been syndicated.

According to Forbes, this deal "could diminish Internet traffic to newspaper and broadcast companies' Web sites where those stories and photos are also found -- a development that could reduce those companies' revenue from online advertising." Ouch. This might be a good time to start beefing up your local content, or at least customizing those wire stories more.

2. CNN, Reuters part ways. Effective today, CNN has ended its 27-year-old agreement to syndicate Reuters news content. According to Reuters, CNN's decision was motivated by a desire "to contain costs and invest in its own news gathering operations."

Telling quote from CNN spokesman Nigel Pritchard: "This is all about us, not Reuters. This is about content ownership. Everything is changing and content ownership is king." Meanwhile, CNN just signed a deal to run contextually targeted Google ads on CNN.com.

3. NBC Universal nixes iTunes deal. Today the New York Times reports: "NBC Universal, unable to come to an agreement with Apple on pricing, has decided not to renew its contract to sell digital downloads of television shows on iTunes." The media conglomerate is iTunes' top supplier of digital video, "accounting for about 40 percent of downloads."

The current contract runs through December; after that the videos will be pulled. More coverage and analysis from Paid Content and Terry Heaton. (NOTE: This story continues to unfold. See the update.)

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