Newspaper Empire Strikes Back

Old media has gotten off its lofty perch and is responding to online media's usurpation of some of its audience. The smart publishers are developing new ways of distributing content, while the geezers are fighting in court.

The World Association of Newspapers is upset about news aggregation sites using headlines, summaries and photos without permission, and the Agency France Presse sued Google over its news site's use of newspaper content.

But these newspaper groups are getting this wrong. News aggregators are acting like the newsstands and paper boxes that are prominently placed on city sidewalks everywhere that hope to entice readers by displaying the headlines. Fair use is taking a headline or summary and linking to the original content, and I'm guessing that the publisher's log files show that they are getting a considerable amount of their traffic from portal site links.

To add to the hypocrisy, every day newspaper writers including the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz frequently reprint paragraphs from other papers in their columns on media criticism. Talk about a double standard.

The more progressive (aka sane) publishers are exploring all of the options for distributing their content, and are forming alliances to maximize their exposure.

From now on, no media outlet is an island. People want to read, hear, and watch the news, and media companies should have a finger in each pie so that they can maximize their ad revenue. So building websites that combine content from TV and print news (ala the wonderful Sfgate), and producing RSS feeds and podcasts will build the brand as a trusted authority, therefore encouraging people to subscribe or pick a paper off the rack.

As all surfers know, you can't stop the waves from coming, but you can learn to ride them.