Do a search for a current news story with a popular news aggregator/search engine, and you're likely to get a large number of results. But the catch is that most of the results are likely to be the same or very similiar, because all the news sources that have picked up the original Reuters or Associated Press wire story are usually listed near the top.
These results are useful when you want to get a quick sense of a story or get the latest on a breaking news event. My take on the blogosphere is that it has the potential to bring new depth to the news reporting. By combining major news sources and wire stories with on-the-scene "citizen journalism", personal opinions, analysis, and a glorious and occasionally stinky concoction of conversation, arguing, pontificating, punditizing, and storytelling along route; a richer, deeper view of a news event emerges.
Now a company called Mochila offers a service that allows bloggers to republish AP stories, with a three-way split of any ad revenue that results.
I think this idea is a loser in several respects. As I mentioned, there are already countless ways to get your eyeballs on AP stories. In fact, it's hard to avoid them sometimes! As a consumer of news, I want there to be fewer and better organized places to read AP stories, not more. Sites like Newsvine are a great solution if you're a wire story hound and looking for a community to hang out with at the same time.
Further, legitimate bloggers seldom feel compelled to republish entire articles. What's the point, aside from grabbing 30% of potential extra revenue? As Techdirt rightly points out, a prime source of business for Mochila may well be nefearious sploggers who are looking to flood the Internet with oceans of AP stories in an effort to snag search engine traffic.
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Article comments
1 - keith mcallister
Your blog about Mochila gives the impression that only content from The Associated Press is available in our marketplace. That is incorrect. Mochila currently has 150 member organizations that own and operate more than 1,500 newspapers, magazines, and websitesâ€"in addition to television and radio propertiesâ€"around the world. Our membership includes some of the world’s biggest and best-known brands as well as some of the smallest and least known, English-language as well as Spanish-language. You can find great high-quality content in dozens of categories, from health to bridal to tech to the issues of working mothers. Publishers can buy this great rights-managed content a la carte or can acquire it for free by accepting advertising for which the web publisher also earns 30% of the ad revenue.
Not only can a publisherâ€"offline or onlineâ€"find an enormous diversity of content in Mochila, but any Mochila member can also syndicate their own content to our global membership. Content sellers have total control over their own licensing issues, such as pricing and who can access their content.
Joining Mochila is free and it takes just 8 days from when you apply to getting a login. I invite you to come to www.mochila.com and consider joining Mochila.
Keith McAllister
Mochila CEO
2 - Eric Berlin
Thanks for the comment, Keith. Much of the coverage surrounding the launch of Mochila's service focused on the republishing of "full text" AP stories, so that's what I chose to focus on as well.
I do see some value in a service where a publisher can both offer up its own content for others and gain the right to republish full-text content from a wide collection of content providers... However, in *most* cases I think a judicious quote or a well written restructuring of an original quote (both with attribution and link) serves best and is the foundation for how the blogosphere carries on conversations and adds value within an interactive medium.
3 - Elena
How does the end audience benefit? So the large companies are automatically accepted, what's the criteria for selection and what are the terms for other publishers, sellers, buyers, etc?
4 - Eric Berlin
I imagine the idea is that the end audience benefits by being exposed to new ideas, services, and products, Elena. I haven't looked into Mochila enough to explain the details of its policies -- I'm sure they have some documentation on their site.