AP News Alert: Disintermediation is here

Please pardon this disintermediation ... we're just changing all the rules.

Does the venerable Associated Press get disintermediation in its core business?

A couple E.W. Scripps executives I work with think not and made some provocative arguments in OJR last week. They envision a Napster model in which Internet technologies are used to open the system and drive down costs.

If AP had its collective head firmly inside the 21st Century, it already would be moving at least parts of its services in the Napster direction. But AP is like any business confronted with a disruptive technology. Its first inclination is self-preservation, not cannibalization.

Give it a read. If you want leave a comment on Bob Benz's "Suffering the Benz" blog.

The react from AP? Still trying to tell if the smoke was white or black or just resulted from spontaneous combustion. We still have a wire feed.