Fighting Revenue Loss, AP Looks to Protect Content

Written by Steve Donohue

Tuesday, April 7. 2009 at 12:25 PM EDT Post a comment

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The Associated Press didn't point fingers at Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), or any other Web portals Monday when it announced that it was cracking down on Websites that use its content inappropriately, but the news service appears to be targeting the search giants with its warning.

AP is struggling to maintain revenue levels as the economic recession and weak ad market have pounded newspapers -- its core customer base. And while its print and video content appears on hundreds of Websites, the company says some portals aren't paying it to license the content.

AP says it is developing a system that will allow it to track content distributed online to determine if is being used legally. Without offering details, the top wire service said it would also develop new search pages that "point users to the latest and most authoritative sources of breaking news."

"We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories," AP chairman Dean Singleton said after meeting with AP's board of directors Monday in San Diego.

With several newspapers folding their print publications in recent months, including The Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, AP has reduced the fees it charges newspapers. On Monday, AP implemented price cuts which the non-profit company said would reduce its rates by more than $35 million for 2010.

AP says the rate reductions will slash its revenues from U.S. newspapers by about one third between 2008 and 2010.