AP ripe for disruption by Web platform

Publish2 founder Scott Karp takes aim at the Associated Press with his Publish2 News Exchange during a presentation at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York on Monday afternoon. In his talk (watch the video), he says the AP, not Google, is the enemy of newspapers.

It's a big, bold effort, but beyond the potentially disruptive impact on the AP, it offers publications (print/online and digital only ... traditional and upstart blogs), a platform upon which to exchange information.

Many newspapers are already exchanging content without "the wire" through informal content sharing agreements like the Tennessee Newspaper Network here in Tennessee, but Karp's vision goes well beyond those efforts. In fact, he calls the informal sharing arrangements unscaleable and inefficient.

His system would allow both the exchange of content based on each publication's specific terms of use, either free or for a fee. It's an easy to use platform for content syndication using inexpnesive and readily available open Web technologies.

"We're going to 'Craigslist' the AP," Karp says referrring to the way the popular free online classified site crumbled the newspaper industry's lucrative classified advertisi9ng business.

A key will be getting those newspapers already dabbling in content sharing outside of the AP and their own chains to use his platform. It's also possible that non-newspaper publishers, the online-only news and tech sites will adopt the service as the default method of content syndication to other online publishers, which also would be an interesting development. Exactly where News Exchange takes Publish2 is anybody's guess. Watch it..
 
(Disclosure: I'm among the company's "advisors.")

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