COPYCENSE

Commentary by K. Matthew Dames, Executive Editor

In a direct attempt to compete with Google’s News offering, Yahoo! has launched a beta version of Yahoo! News. Yahoo News is a blend of bots and brains, as human editors refine the listings that the automated search algorithm produces. Like its competitor, the Yahoo News page will allow users to customize the interface using cookies.

What remains to be seen is whether Yahoo! News will encounter some of the copyright problems that Google News has begun to encounter. Last month, Google dropped Agence France Presse ("AFP") from it source list after the French news service sued Google, claiming that Google’s display of AFP’s headlines, images and story leads without permission ran afoul of U.S. copyright law. Earlier this month, news wire giant Associated Press announced that it was discussing with Google the possibility of licensing its content to the search company. Google currently uses the AP feeds in its News service without compensation.

In a talk I gave last week on Open Access, I drew a parallel between these actions taken by news industry giants, and the lawsuits lodged against consumers by the recording industry. In both instances, technological advances have disrupted the business and profit models that established companies in established industries have followed for years. In each instance, the response of established companies (or their lobbying organizations) has been to sue, either to maintain profit margins, or to maintain the status quo until another profitable business model can be developed. (Conistent with this approach, we may see AFP and AP join Reed-Elsevier and Thomson in promoting database protection legislation before Congress.)

And in each instance, this strategy totally misses the boat.

As has occurred in the music industry, the value of content in the news industry has been diminished. It seems clear that consumers are less likely to want to pay for most kinds of content, be it music, artistic, or journalistic. And when it comes to news content, people do not expect to pay at all. One could reasonably argue that this is shameful or wrong; be what it may, it is simply the way things are.

On the other hand, consumers seem willing to pay premium prices for content that includes something that adds value to the content. There are several ways that companies that specialize in providing printed content can add value: static citations, optimized PDFs, and multimedia enhancements are some of the initiatives that come to my mind.

With the advent of RSS, the trend toward open access (particularly outside the United States), and the decreased relevance of print material as a primary information source, the news industry is in the exact same position as the music industry. Hopefully, companies in the news industry will be smarter than their brethren in music and film and leverage new, disruptive, and distributive technologies into new customers and revenue streams instead of desperately clinging to business models that will render them extinct regardless of their legislative and litigation tactics.

See also:
Mark Glaser. Inside Yahoo News. Online Journalism Review. April 1, 2005.

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