In a move slammed by commentators as being akin to a herd of donkey’s suing the inventor of the wheel, a number of national UK newspapers have apparently been making legal threats to content aggregator service NewsNow.
What on earth is going on here? While details of the threats have yet to emerge, we know newspapers have been seeing their commercial prospects head south and we know that the key to ensuring future survival is to elusive generate online revenue streams. But what these newspapers seem to be doing is shooting a messenger and not addressing the roots of their problems.
NewsNow is a basic linking service. It is not stealing any content, purely enabling users to search on key words for links that then take people through to the source article. Links are at the heart of the web. They are what make things tick. They generate traffic while building relevancy for SEO purposes. As I was building the online premium subscription breaking news service ICIS news, I wanted to ensure we were on NewsNow. For me there is a clear correlation between free traffic, which in turn generates leads and which then can be converted into REVENUE.
In an open letter to UK national, regional and local newspapers, NewsNow chief Struan Bartlett said his company and other aggregators had received legal threats over the possible imposition of new controls on how aggregators can link to external websites.
Bartlett’s letter specifically named The Times, The Sun, The Guardian, Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and the Daily Express and said that publishers were misguided in thinking that aggregators could undermine newspapers.
We can’t speak for all aggregators but for our part at NewsNow, we don’t do anything that detracts from the value of your content. We don’t redistribute your web pages to anyone. We operate within the law, and we don’t do you any harm.
Far from it. We deliver you traffic and drive you revenues you otherwise wouldn’t have received. The idea that we are undermining your businesses is incorrect. It is fanciful to imagine that, if it weren’t for link aggregators, you would have more traffic or revenues. We provide a service that you do not: a means for readers to find your content more readily, via continuously updating links to a diversity of websites.
If newspapers persist in placing themselves in a firmly sealed box they will see traffic decline. People will not type in individual URLs. The reader today needs to have relevant content pushed to them. People are increasing less inclined to go out and pull content in the hope it is what they may want to see.
The problem here goes to the core of the paid versus free debate. News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch and Tom Curley, head of the Associated Press, have laid down the gauntlet to the major players like Google and Microsoft as part of their bids to ensure either the readers or the aggregators pay for the content they disseminate.
Bartlett said:
Links market your content to readers. Abolish them, and readers won’t all type in your homepage address. They will go elsewhere. We don’t believe we are alone in this view. Many website traffic managers, journalists and editors within your own organisations clearly share this view. We know, because they’ve told us directly that they strongly value our linking to your websites.
There can only be one loser in the Battle of the Links — the newspapers. Aggregators will simply look elsewhere for the content, and eyeballs will be dragged away with them. Brand loyalty is increasingly a thing of the past, especially when it comes to consuming news online. Nico Flores makes some good arguments in favour of the link economy on his blog On Demand Media.
We’ve seen what’s happened to the music industry as it utterly failed to innovate and drive new business models in the face of escalating free or illegal downloads, and now, it appears, newspapers and other news sources may be about to make the same mistakes. It is impossible for anyone to maintain monopoly over general information, and that is where the majority of “news” sits.
What is important is ensuring the traffic is driven down a preferred road and that the content provider is then able to engage directly with the reader to seek ways to monetise content that is carefully targetted and highly relevant to a specific user. The key here is all about embracing the future, not fighting it. Bows and arrows are no good against nuclear weapons.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jeff Jarvis and Gabriel Nijmeh, John Paul. John Paul said: RT @jeffjarvis Pointless war over aggregation is on: http://bit.ly/2lKCtp [...]
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by jeffjarvis: Pointless war over aggregation is on: http://bit.ly/2lKCtp...
[...] NewsNow aggregator comes out fighting against newspaper threats …12 hours ago by Andy Soloman They generate traffic while building relevancy for SEO purposes. As I was building the online premium subscription breaking news service ICIS news, I wanted to ensure we were on NewsNow. For me there is a clear correlation between free … [...]
Valid and very good info you have provided