By: The Associated Press announced two agreements Tuesday -- one that will tie its news stories to the rapidly growing world of blogs and another that will help guide readers to newspaper Web sites.
Under the first, Technorati Inc., the leading search engine for blog postings, will provide links to blogs that cite AP stories.
The AP also will assist search engine Topix.net, controlled by three major newspaper companies, in sending readers directly to the sites of newspapers when stories in the AP report are based primarily on material from those members.
The deals highlight efforts by AP, a not-for-profit cooperative owned by U.S. news organizations, to help member newspapers and broadcasters in a world where many people get their news from the free-wheeling and chaotic Web.
Technorati will search blogs for postings that include links to AP stories. Links to those postings will be available along with the original AP stories on 440 member Web sites served by AP Hosted News, a service that uses AP servers to display AP content on member sites. There also will be a box featuring the "Top Five Most Blogged About" AP stories.
Clicking on the links takes the reader to a Technorati page listing the relevant blogs. Revenue from ads on the page will be shared by Technorati and the AP, but the revenue is not expected to cover more than the cost of the project, said Kristie Bouryal, AP's deputy director of online for U.S. newspapers.
Web sites that keep AP content on their own servers are not part of the program. Sites with AP hosted content also may opt out if they wish.
Bouryal said the AP hopes members will apply the Technorati service to their own stories, not just AP material. The Washington Post and Newsweek, both owned by Washington Post Co., already have similar arrangements with Technorati.
Privately owned Technorati says it tracks 40.7 million blogs, with a new blog created every second.
Most of AP's stories are written by its own journalists, and not based on stories in member newspapers. But the second deal with Topix, a Palo Alto-based company 75 percent controlled by Gannett Co., Knight Ridder Inc. and Tribune Co., is an attempt to address a common complaint among newspapers when AP stories are based on material from their stories.
Most search engines display many copies of these AP stories, each from a different Web site served by AP. Topix.net will display a link to the original story on which the AP dispatch was based -- as it appears on the Web site of the newspaper that contributed it to begin with.
Right now search engines send users "somewhat randomly" to various sites, said Jane Seagrave, AP's vice president of new media.
"The truth is there are not that many of us who are breaking news anymore, that have people on the ground ... the whole notion here is to spotlight those who are real content creators and not make news such a generic commodity on the Web," Seagrave said.
AP's arrangement will run for 15 months with Topix, which also agreed to license AP online content for its site, Seagrave said.
S.W. "Sammy" Papert, head of newspaper consulting firm Belden Associates in Dallas, said the major papers would likely be quite interested in Topix's ability to steer a national audience to their Web sites.
However, local newspapers derive most of their revenue from local advertising, and may be less interested in increasing exposure to Web surfers outside their coverage area.
Despite its large media company owners, Topix lags well behind the Internet's most popular news sources.
Yahoo Inc.'s site, which links to news stories from the AP and other news organizations, is the top news destination, attracting 25.7 million unique U.S. visitors in April, followed by Time Warner Inc.'s CNN at 23.7 million visitors and MSNBC at 23.2 million, according to research firm Nielsen/NetRatings Inc. Topix ranked 29th at 2.7 million visitors, Nielsen/NetRatings said.
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