I remember, a year or so ago, when I first saw the AP's "donate" button at the upper-right corner of its website. The Associated Press has shat in its own foxhole for years (I just love the occasional use of "shat"!) and wanted bailing out? Hah.
Well, I guess not enough people were sending it couch change.
Or else, so many people were that it figured it could grift off them.
It's now going into the e-commerce world, partnering with Taboola.
The shatting (past participle/gerund) in its own foxhole goes back 30 years to then AP board chair Dean-o Singleton, who convinced the rest of the board that the so-called "TV model" was a thing and AP did not need to worry about Internet 0.5, including not needing an early version of a paywall. AP then proceeded to undercharge news aggregators like Yahoo (remember when it was a "thing"?), not anticipate Reuters, then AFP, expanding their American presence, not adjust membership tiers and fees for U.S. member newspapers, and much more.
And, now, it wants to sell us shit.
What do we get?
A digital version of Dean-o's autograph?
Options to buy into Alden Global Capital?
A model of the "TV model"?
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Update, March 19: Whatever AP does with e-commerce, that won't be the end. Gannett and McClatchy are both cord-cutting at the end of their current subscriptions. AP told the NYT this "would not have a material impact on our overall revenue."
Bullshit.
As much bullshit as Gannett's claims, here if you hit the Slimes paywall:
“Between USA Today and our incredible network of more than 200 newsrooms, we create more journalism every day than The A.P.,” Kristin Roberts, the chief content officer of Gannett, wrote in a company memo.
More bullshit. Gannett was crappy before being acquired by Craphouse, and has done zero in investments since then.
You know American newspaper journalism is in the toilet when you can't figure out if Gannett or AP is the bigger liar.
One interesting note?
Gannett's not dumping wire services entirely.
Instead, it's going with Reuters.
Since Deano screwed the pooch long ago, both Reuters and AFP have expanded their US presence, and by a large amount. I'm sure other current AP members are going to come knocking on Reuters' door pretty quickly.
"Can I have the Gannett deal?"
THAT will affect your bottom line indeed, AP.
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Weirdly, Dick Teufel, on his Substack, missed that Gannett isn't getting rid of wire services in general, just dumping AP (in part, not totally, in fact) for Reuters. (And, despite me noting that in comments, he hasn't updated.)
He does note, of relevance to the first half of this piece, that AP claimed a year ago that traditional newspaper memberships were only about 10 percent of its revenue stream. (AP itself confirms, per that Poynter link above about Reuters.) That said, most pieces don't discuss how much Gannett was paying. Well, surely some of the video licensing it touts is to newspapers, and I assume Craphouse and McLatchKey are ditching that, too. And, that's not discussed anywhere.
Update, Aug. 20: We've found out that's a lie, and a humongous one. Hence, per my semi-rhetorical question above, we know AP is a bigger liar than New Gannett aka Old Craphouse, and that's a HUGE bar to clear, to reverse the old cliche. Per that, AP's worried that non-US newspapers will ditch the AP for their US newsfeed and look at the likes of Reuters instead.
Update 2, Aug. 20: Meanwhile, the AP is looking into yet new avenues for grifting or money-laundering, pick your word choice.
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