AP Exec Claims That Its Moves Look Stupid To The Untrained Eye... Not Clear On What The Trained Eye Thinks

from the so...-uh,-please-explain... dept

The Associated Press has been doing a ton of questionable moves of late, that certainly look like a clueless organization committing suicide -- but, wait! Jim Kennedy, who oversees strategic planning for the AP, claims that only "to the untrained eye, it looks like we're stupid." But, of course, he fails to explain what it looks like to the trained eye -- because most of the "trained eyes" we've spoken to also seem to think that the AP is being stupid. At best, the AP says: "We're looking forward to a totally new space where we have to get ready to do things in a totally different way. We're trying to be smart business people and we're trying to stay in business." But, that's not clear at all from its actions. In fact, it looks like the other way around. The actions aren't about understanding a new space or doing things in a different way. It looks like it's trying to claw its way back to the "old way" of doing things. And, contrary to what folks believe there, that's not the best way to stay in business.

Now, on top of this, the AP has released a rather hilarious FAQ, where it tries to define what it's doing. But, reading through the answers, you get a whole lot of nothing. It claims it's not trying to set up tollbooths, not trying to kill off links and not aiming this at bloggers. Instead, it says that it's (again) trying to prepare for a new way of interacting, and is looking forward to "cooperating." None of this is clear at all. Basically, it looks like the AP still thinks that it gets to define how news on the web will work. The folks there apparently don't comprehend how far past them the internet has already gone. They can try to "negotiate," but if it doesn't fit in with what people do online, it's not going anywhere. Once again, we're in a situation where the AP thinks it has leverage, and it's about to discover it has none.

Filed Under: business models, jim kennedy
Companies: associated press