The Future of News

David Lazarus in the San Francisco Chronicle writes, “I’ll come right out and say it: It’s time for newspapers to stop giving away the store. We as an industry need to start charging for — or at the very least controlling — use of our products online.” If papers are serious about this, they might start by reexamining their relationship with the Associated Press (AP). For all intents and purposes, the AP is their organization – the major newspapers own, fund, and share stories through it. Yet, as their newspapers are being printed – papers which include these wire service stories — this news has been available over the Internet free, for many hours. Newspapers continue to fund their own destruction, yet no one seems to notice.