The Associated Press (AP) is one of the major innovations of the 19th century. It consolidated the titanic task of gathering news and events, and allowed for the many disparate newspapers and outlets effectively dispense information. However, in-light of the internet in the past decades, the AP and publishing as an industry is facing an inflection point.
The newspaper used to be the vehicle for a mass distribution of 1.) news events, but also 2.) journalistic interpretation. Both were expensive to do, but at least the first was simpler. And yet more tangibly of value to its consumers. Knowing about a large fire, or great crime, or even local gossip was valuable to readers. Or at least worth buying a daily newspaper for. And because publishing was one monolithic structure, it could use the immediate value of the former to finance the latter.
Meaning a newspaper could afford to send a journalist and a photographer to cover a story for months or years. Because some stories required months or years to fully realize.
The internet has collapsed the perceived value of news event coverage. It will always beat any publisher in distribution, speed, and reach as it leverages the zero cost of copy-and-pasting and posting.
The tension now is not about the “destruction of the publishing industry” or “the masses unwilling to pay for services.” But rather that there is still a need for journalistic interpretation, and deep slow investigative coverage. The gap is now how to finance something that is inherently expensive and inherently risky with a consuming public that may not inherently know that it’s expensive and risky to do.
Dynamic Hypocrisy 