NiemanJournalismLab reporting: The Association of Alternative Newsmedia
is building out a kind of wire service to allow alternative news sites
to share content with each other — and maybe make some money.
The recently launched AltWeeklies Content Exchange lets papers like the Boston Phoenix, Minneapolis’ City Pages or Oakland’s East Bay Express
swap stories, photos, video, or other interactive multimedia to bolster
their coverage of national news. While AAN members will be able to use
the material for free, outside news organizations — think newspapers,
broadcast networks, or news sites — will be able to pay to license it.
On a local level, the exchange would also create a platform for citizens
and freelancers to offer (or sell) work to their local weekly. (Or
another AAN member: The “N” switched from “Newsweeklies” to “Newsmedia” last summer, and the group has started admitting alternative online-only news sites.)
What AAN is trying to do is take advantage of scale — providing extra
copy for its members as well as larger, mainstream outlets that don’t
have the time or resources to cover the issues the weeklies specialize
in. If the program proves successful it would not only increase the
amount of journalism readers are exposed to, but it could contribute to
papers revenue, said Tiffany Shackelford, executive director of the AAN.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/03/alt-weeklies-eye-an-ap-of-their-own-with-a-content-exchange/
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