Post by eusebio13 on Oct 25, 2009 9:32:27 GMT
Sorry if this doesn't quite seem QPR/football related but like a lot of you I really on Report and sites like Newsnow to find info on a range of subjects. Newsnow in particular is probably my most visited site (sorry Report). It seems that the newspapers now see something incompatible with their business and these types of sites.
econsultancy.com/blog/4819-uk-newspapers-threaten-major-news-aggregator
News aggregator NewsNow has been on the receiving end of legal threats from a number of UK newspapers, a move that is the equivalent of a herd of donkeys filing a class action suit against the inventor of the wheel.
The announcement comes six months after the Associated Press said it would demand more control over links and revenue sharing from aggregators.
While AP hasnât been named by NewsNow as a complainant, an open letter by NewsNow MD Struan Bartlett has pointed to most of the UKâs top newspapers, including The Times, The Sun, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and Daily Express.
He's asked these newspapers to "restore amicable relations" with aggregators, including NewsNow, which itself appears under threat as a result of the mainstream media's demands.
Bartlett writes:
Your organisations have sought to introduce new controls on our linking to your websites. Now, a number of parties have threatened us (plus other aggregators) with legal action if we do not either accept these new controls or else stop linking."
The keyphrase in that last sentence is âstop linkingâ. It once again proves that newspaper executives are reality dodgers of the highest order.
Everybody knows that links are what makes the world turn these days, as far as internet traffic and SEO is concerned. Asking a popular news aggregator to stop linking is one of the more brainless moves a newspaper executive could ever do. The ignorance shown here is simply unbelievable.
He points out the madness of this kind of hostile action:
"We canât speak for all aggregators but for our part at NewsNow, we donât do anything that detracts from the value of your content. We donât redistribute your web pages to anyone. We operate within the law, and we donât do you any harm.
"Far from it. We deliver you traffic and drive you revenues you otherwise wouldnât have received. The idea that we are undermining your businesses is incorrect. It is fanciful to imagine that, if it werenât for link aggregators, you would have more traffic or revenues. We provide a service that you do not: a means for readers to find your content more readily, via continuously updating links to a diversity of websites."
Bartlett adds:
We have had enough of indiscriminate attacks. To vilify all aggregators as âcheap worthless technological news solutionsâ and âcontent kleptomaniacsâ is just empty rhetoric. Not only is that misleading - it is misguided.â
He asks the newspapers to âstop the legal threatsâ, to ârecognise the place and value of legitimate news aggregation websites in todayâs news ecosystemâ, to âcommit to upholding the freedom to linkâ, and to âsupport those of your readers who wish to find links to your websites on NewsNowâ.
I canât help but feel his requests will fall on the deafest of ears.
The old days are not going to return. The media and advertising markets are fragmented and will remain that way. The internet will continue to grow, and will impact on the media industry, but it doesn't have to be game over.
Hereâs 10 things that newspaper execs should be doing:
Accept and embrace reality (stop dreaming)
Deal with change like grown ups (stop bitchinâ)
Spend your time and energy fixing up your businesses and planning for the future (stop blaming)
Understand why links are important (isnât it weird to bang on about this as we approach 2010?)
Embrace websites that can drive traffic (you already do this, judging by the amount of effort you spend on generating links / traffic from sites like Digg and the blogosphere at large. PS - itâs not their fault. Guaranteed.)
Get closer to your audience and give them the tools they need to engage (social media helps, as you already know)
Stop bastardising your brand (The Daily Mailâs web readers are presumably wholly different from the newspaper's readers, given the focus on celebrity content⌠is this quest for traffic helpful, or harmful?)
Figure out what your advertisers want (and what they donât want, because they'll be sure to tell you)
Train your staff (for the love of somebody elseâs God, please start training your journalists in the ways of the web. Ditto your commercial people, your HR people, your management staff, etc)
Build out a multichannel business (the sooner you do this, the better itâs going to be in the long run).
econsultancy.com/blog/4819-uk-newspapers-threaten-major-news-aggregator
News aggregator NewsNow has been on the receiving end of legal threats from a number of UK newspapers, a move that is the equivalent of a herd of donkeys filing a class action suit against the inventor of the wheel.
The announcement comes six months after the Associated Press said it would demand more control over links and revenue sharing from aggregators.
While AP hasnât been named by NewsNow as a complainant, an open letter by NewsNow MD Struan Bartlett has pointed to most of the UKâs top newspapers, including The Times, The Sun, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and Daily Express.
He's asked these newspapers to "restore amicable relations" with aggregators, including NewsNow, which itself appears under threat as a result of the mainstream media's demands.
Bartlett writes:
Your organisations have sought to introduce new controls on our linking to your websites. Now, a number of parties have threatened us (plus other aggregators) with legal action if we do not either accept these new controls or else stop linking."
The keyphrase in that last sentence is âstop linkingâ. It once again proves that newspaper executives are reality dodgers of the highest order.
Everybody knows that links are what makes the world turn these days, as far as internet traffic and SEO is concerned. Asking a popular news aggregator to stop linking is one of the more brainless moves a newspaper executive could ever do. The ignorance shown here is simply unbelievable.
He points out the madness of this kind of hostile action:
"We canât speak for all aggregators but for our part at NewsNow, we donât do anything that detracts from the value of your content. We donât redistribute your web pages to anyone. We operate within the law, and we donât do you any harm.
"Far from it. We deliver you traffic and drive you revenues you otherwise wouldnât have received. The idea that we are undermining your businesses is incorrect. It is fanciful to imagine that, if it werenât for link aggregators, you would have more traffic or revenues. We provide a service that you do not: a means for readers to find your content more readily, via continuously updating links to a diversity of websites."
Bartlett adds:
We have had enough of indiscriminate attacks. To vilify all aggregators as âcheap worthless technological news solutionsâ and âcontent kleptomaniacsâ is just empty rhetoric. Not only is that misleading - it is misguided.â
He asks the newspapers to âstop the legal threatsâ, to ârecognise the place and value of legitimate news aggregation websites in todayâs news ecosystemâ, to âcommit to upholding the freedom to linkâ, and to âsupport those of your readers who wish to find links to your websites on NewsNowâ.
I canât help but feel his requests will fall on the deafest of ears.
The old days are not going to return. The media and advertising markets are fragmented and will remain that way. The internet will continue to grow, and will impact on the media industry, but it doesn't have to be game over.
Hereâs 10 things that newspaper execs should be doing:
Accept and embrace reality (stop dreaming)
Deal with change like grown ups (stop bitchinâ)
Spend your time and energy fixing up your businesses and planning for the future (stop blaming)
Understand why links are important (isnât it weird to bang on about this as we approach 2010?)
Embrace websites that can drive traffic (you already do this, judging by the amount of effort you spend on generating links / traffic from sites like Digg and the blogosphere at large. PS - itâs not their fault. Guaranteed.)
Get closer to your audience and give them the tools they need to engage (social media helps, as you already know)
Stop bastardising your brand (The Daily Mailâs web readers are presumably wholly different from the newspaper's readers, given the focus on celebrity content⌠is this quest for traffic helpful, or harmful?)
Figure out what your advertisers want (and what they donât want, because they'll be sure to tell you)
Train your staff (for the love of somebody elseâs God, please start training your journalists in the ways of the web. Ditto your commercial people, your HR people, your management staff, etc)
Build out a multichannel business (the sooner you do this, the better itâs going to be in the long run).