The End of Free

by Roger Pynn

Has The Associated Press fired a shot across the bow of the SS Free? AP is everyone’s news pool … there when the 1400 papers that own it can’t be, covering everything from a cat down a drain in Oshkosh to wars, floods, inaugurations and state funerals.

Now The New York Times reports that AP Pres. Tom Curley says enough is enough … putting Google, Yahoo and all the other news aggregators out there on notice that they are going to put a stop to the unpaid re-use of its content.

The Times reported Curley as saying “If someone can build multibillion-dollar businesses out of keywords, we can build multihundred-million businesses out of headlines, and we’re going to do that.” The Times said Curley said the goal was not to have less use of the news articles, but to be paid for any use.

You have to wonder whether the goal of the AP (itself a nonprofit organization) goes beyond the aggregators and could severely limit blog references and other not-for-profit use of its material.

If AP is successful with its software approach to protecting its members valuable content, does it signal the dawn of an Internet age in which someone has to pay for everything … which no doubt means we all will?

A Handwritten Note

by Kim Taylor

We talk every day about new ways to incorporate social media into client strategies. So much is online … blogs, Twitter, Facebook, it’s easy to forget communication does exist off the Web … until yesterday.

Buried in the clutter of my mail was this piece:

Woof! Orlando

No, your eyes aren’t failing you.  That’s a handwritten postcard. 

I’ve never given much thought to bringing my dog to a chichi salon, but somehow I feel this meticulous handwriting-mixed-with-red-crayon shouldn’t be in vain.