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They want to stop appearing in Google search results as long as Google isn't paying them for the right to present those results, which I think is an important d

They want to stop appearing in Google search results as long as Google isn't paying them for the right to present those results, which I think is an important distinction to make. Playing devil's advocate a bit, from the AP's perspective, how is Google really any different than any other distributor of AP content? It's just another company using their content to hang ads off of and generate revenue (like all of their other customers), except that Google doesn't pay for it. AP makes money from volume, lots of papers subscribing to their feed. Google means that fewer papers are needed (it just needs to index one, doesn't it?), chopping the AP's customer base down and eventually making their current model completely obsolete. Seeing the writing on the wall and trying to prevent it from happening, that's not evidence they don't get it, that's evidence they get it all too well but just have no idea what to do about it. Any thoughts on what to do about it? As far as I can tell, nobody has really figured it out yet, have they?

jonknee 18y ago
> Playing devil's advocate a bit, from the AP's perspective, how is Google really any different than any other distributor of AP content? It's just another company using their content to hang ads off of and generate revenue (like all of their other customers), except that Google doesn't pay for it. Seriously? Google links out to the original copy. You see a headline and at most a couple sentences. If there's a fulltext copy it is licensed.
- calambrac 18y ago
  Yes, of course they do. But before you click through, there are a bunch of ads displayed off to the side. And Google just exposes the one newspaper that they're sending the traffic to, so the one with the best SEO wins while everyone else goes out of business, directly threatening the AP's bottom line. So what's the AP going to do? They can restructure their rates so they capture more from the winners, and/or they can hit the whole ad stack (which Google is the first layer of, now). I mean, really, what else do you expect them to do? Just wither and die? Another way to say it: when the distribution of a pile of money across a group of companies shifts from normal to power law, and you were getting paid by that group, you had better figure out how you're going to get more money out of the winners as the losers start dropping out.
  - ja2ke 18y ago
    "the one with the best SEO wins while everyone else goes out of business, directly threatening the AP's bottom line." Versus what? The AP is somehow going to benevolently distribute all paid links equally amongst all of its various print client to help them all reach each month's traffic goals?
    - calambrac 18y ago
      Um, no. What did I say that suggested that? Did you read the article? They're going to try to change their model so that they get paid more by the companies that are shifting to the spiky end of the emerging power law distribution, and capturing revenue from the whole ad stack.
- barrkel 18y ago
  AP's headlines and first sentences are probably their most valuable product.

jonknee 18y ago

> Playing devil's advocate a bit, from the AP's perspective, how is Google really any different than any other distributor of AP content? It's just another company using their content to hang ads off of and generate revenue (like all of their other customers), except that Google doesn't pay for it. Seriously? Google links out to the original copy. You see a headline and at most a couple sentences. If there's a fulltext copy it is licensed.

calambrac 18y ago
Yes, of course they do. But before you click through, there are a bunch of ads displayed off to the side. And Google just exposes the one newspaper that they're sending the traffic to, so the one with the best SEO wins while everyone else goes out of business, directly threatening the AP's bottom line. So what's the AP going to do? They can restructure their rates so they capture more from the winners, and/or they can hit the whole ad stack (which Google is the first layer of, now). I mean, really, what else do you expect them to do? Just wither and die? Another way to say it: when the distribution of a pile of money across a group of companies shifts from normal to power law, and you were getting paid by that group, you had better figure out how you're going to get more money out of the winners as the losers start dropping out.
- ja2ke 18y ago
  "the one with the best SEO wins while everyone else goes out of business, directly threatening the AP's bottom line." Versus what? The AP is somehow going to benevolently distribute all paid links equally amongst all of its various print client to help them all reach each month's traffic goals?
  - calambrac 18y ago
    Um, no. What did I say that suggested that? Did you read the article? They're going to try to change their model so that they get paid more by the companies that are shifting to the spiky end of the emerging power law distribution, and capturing revenue from the whole ad stack.
barrkel 18y ago
AP's headlines and first sentences are probably their most valuable product.