Online Public Relations Thoughts

If AP gets its way and Google pays for using its news, that will be a second wire service to remove its content from the free internet. There is nothing wrong with AP doing that, of course. It owns the copyrighted material. But, wouldn't you expect other news organizations to follow the example? I would, since newspaper circulation is falling and ad revenue from print sources is declining as well. In fact, in the last quarter, The Wall Street Journal's online subscription edition outearned its print edition. We may be looking at a transition point between print and online news. That means to me that online news will be more expensive going forward. News publishers have to find a way to pay for content they produce. If they can't pay for it in print, they will demand payment online. And, they will get it.