But that’s the problem ... they haven’t backed off. They’ve gotten loonier. They now plan to charge bloggers $2.50 a word for any size excerpt, even those which would fall under fair use. I can’t help but wonder - is it possible the AP has seen a drop in revenue as blogs and readier access to independent journalists becomes more common? Could this simply be an attempt by the AP to prop up it’s bottom line? |
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Written By:
Scott Jacobs
URL:
http://
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But that’s the problem ... they haven’t backed off. They’ve gotten loonier Exactly.
Michelle Malkin proposes sending bills to the AP on a per word bases for the times they’ve quotes US... and there’s plenty of these. But more, since my ad campaigns are on a per click basis, I’m busy compiling the number of clickouts to AP sources. based on those clickouts, they’re getting exposure, and one suppsoes exposure to THEIR revenue sources as well. Perhaps I should start charging them for clickouts, like I ’charge’ Adwords?
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Written By:
Bithead
URL:
http://bitsblog.florack.us
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To me, the wierd part of this is that the amount of money AP would collect, even with active cooperation of well-read bloggers, is pitifully small.
There are probably no more than a thousand political blogs that really matter. The rest are a minor hobby, and virtually none of them are ever going to take the trouble to pay someone money for their occasional ramblings.
Let’s say ten percent of those per day decide to pay AP for a quotation, and that they average, say, $15 per. (That’s wildly generous - I think most political bloggers would never even come close to paying AP $15 every ten days, which would be $45 a month. People blogging for free as a hobby simply won’t pay that, or anywhere close to it. I wouldn’t!)
In that case AP’s daily take, under wildly optimistic assumptions, is $1500. A total for the entire year would come in around $500,000. To an organization the size of AP, that’s absolute chicken feed. And I think that actual number would be a small fraction of that, probably less than $100,000 per year. (Maybe way less, because even that number assumes that the top thousand bloggers would pay an average of $100 per year to AP, which I consider laughable.)
Then we have to consider the fact that they lose advertising money because their traffic drops when linkage to AP articles goes down. Plus transaction costs, which are not a trivial percentage for such small amounts. In the end, AP will be lucky making any money at all.
And for this, they are willing to burn their bridges with thousands of bloggers? It’s lunacy. Can’t these people do simple arithmetic? |
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Written By:
Billy Hollis
URL:
http://
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The AP only needs a sympathetic court though... Expect the first "lawsuit" to collect to occur in the lands of the 9th Circuit... |
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Written By:
Scott Jacobs
URL:
http://
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To me, the wierd part of this is that the amount of money AP would collect, even with active cooperation of well-read bloggers, is pitifully small. Exactly my point, Billy... certainly smaller than the exposure they’re getting, is providing them. Consider the number of people exposed to an ad for example, as the result of one instalanche.And for this, they are willing to burn their bridges with thousands of bloggers? It’s lunacy. Can’t these people do simple arithmetic? Well, obviously, the only conclusion that one might draw is that the income we’re talking about.... either kind... isn’t their motivation. Just what their motivation is, I don’t know, but I have a nagging feeling that we’re being silenced.
You may recall I mentioned the ’fairness doctrine’ a while ago, and suggested that those pushing it wouldn’t stop at radio, particularly since political blogs are the next biggest trheat to leftist power.
It’s a strech, certainly... but I have to wonder if that isn’t what’s happening here. It would be illogical to not at least raise the question, given we have no more logical explaination to hand, either by conjecture, of from Ap themselves. I, for one, cannot think of a more effective way to silence political blogs than to cut off the sources of news on which they comment, and threaten them with lawsuits.
And isn’t it curious that they do this on the cusp of a hotly contested general election?
I don’t make such charges lightly, but as yet I’ve not seen anyone offer any reasonable argument for why AP would pull this stunt now. Keep in mind, ’reasonable’ is likely the most maliable word in the English language, and we’ve seen no explaination taht meets even that low, wide open standard. We’ve run out of logical reasoning to explain the AP’s actions, here. Thus does Holmes’ axiom apply:… when all other contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. … Eh?
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Written By:
Bithead
URL:
http://bitsblog.florack.us
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Yea... and the NYT thought they could make some coin by walling off Krugman. It took them a while but the Times finally came to their senses. |
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Written By:
Bob
URL:
http://
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The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 06/18/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day...so check back often. |
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Written By:
David M
URL:
http://thunderrun.blogspot.com/2007/02/web-reconnaissance-for-02062007.html
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I thought I was up on internet abbreviations, but... "TANSTAAFL?"
Little help? |
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Written By:
Greg
URL:
http://
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Greg check out 1 Click Answers. It’s a real handy tool if reading someone like Buckley. Put your cursor over the word and do an alt+click and you get a pop-up answer.
Here is CNET’s download.
TAASTAAFL
"There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch." See digispeak. |
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Written By:
tom scott
URL:
http://
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Shaun Mullen - could you possibly write a more convoluted sentence? Try a period next time. They are all the rage.
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Written By:
Grimshaw
URL:
http://
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Shaun who? |
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Written By:
Bithead
URL:
http://bitsblog.florack.us
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"TANSTAAFL is an acronym for the adage "There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch," popularized by science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein in his 1966 novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TANSTAAFL |
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Written By:
timactual
URL:
http://
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Ah hah. Thanks for the info, timactual. TANSTAAFL is probably a bit more useful for this site than "tanj," Heinlein’s all-purpose expletive from "Stranger in a Strange Land." |
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Written By:
Greg
URL:
http://
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tanj??
"Trial Attorneys of New Jersey"?
http://www.tanj.org/
"That was a catchphrase in the Ringworld books by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. "
http://tdh46.typepad.com/mondosapore/2007/05/tanj.html
This word is (was, now) unknown to me. |
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Written By:
timactual
URL:
http://
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