AP To Members: Internet Ain’t Free No More

In a move sure to further rile the waters of organizations figuring out how to price their web content, the world’s largest news gathering organization today announced it will begin charging its member newspapers and broadcasters to post its content online.

The move, announced by Associated Press President Tom Curley at the cooperative’s annual meeting in San Francisco, will mean that everyone from the NYT to local TV news channels will have to reevaluate how much and what kinds of AP content to post.

“The new pricing policy, effective Jan. 1, begins to shift some of the funding of AP to the growing online market, as technological advances and digital devices are making it ever easier for people to get their news whenever and however they want it,” the AP’s story, written by Michael Liedtke, on its own meeting reported.

“The need for online licensing is clear. For The Associated Press to endure during this digital transition, we must be able to preserve the value and enforce the rights of our intellectual property across the media spectrum,” Curley said.

According to the AP today, a formula for calculating the online licensing fees still hasn’t been set, so exactly how much this decision will impact various outlets is unclear.

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