The leaders of the Associated Press and News Corp said Friday it is time for search engines and others who use news content for free to pay.

The leaders of these two companies have made an alliance as ad profits from online media have been eerily going down since the beginning of the financial recession about 2 years ago.

Many media companies argue that sites like Google have reaped a fortune from their online content without just compensation from the corporations producing the content.

To me it’s hilarious you would take a potshot at Google when they send you thousands of visitors a minute to your subsidiaries. But hey what do I know. I would never slap the hand that feeds me if I was a multibillion dollar corporation like News Corp, or the Associated Press.

This just seems like posturing or a twisted negotiating tactic.

Weekend Update:
Newsweek has an interesting solution to Fox and the AP’s problem.

Twitter which is apparently on the verge of announcing a data mining agreeement with Google and/or Microsoft (Bing). But in the meantime they are revealing a plan to expand internationally with FIGS.

In the beginning Twitter will attempt to crowdsource some of the initial translations. I know many users in Mexico, and internationally are using the English Language version yet however their Tweets are in Spanish.

Interestingly I see that market as a major place for expansion if they can make some deals with cell phone providers to provide cheap or affordable SMS communications with Twitter like they have with providers here in the United States.

“Twitter is currently available only in English and Japanese. With some help, we will soon be rolling out support for French, Italian, German, and Spanish. These languages are commonly referred to using the acronym FIGS and are often the starting point for services like Twitter when its time for more language support. Later, we hope to offer Twitter in several other languages. No matter how sophisticated technology gets, we’re reminded daily that it’s about people and that’s something we’ve taken to heart regarding translating Twitter. ”

Source: Twitter

Twitter is set to start selling your thoughts to the big giants of Technology of Google and Yahoo, according to multiple sources.

One possible reason according to Brainz would be a nice injection of cash, and a help in growth. Twitter has remained largely stagnant in its growth since the summer.

“The injection of millions in new revenue and possible exposure by Google and Bing gives Twitter hope for a new rise in growth both in revenue and users as things have really slowed down since the summer. ”

Source: Brainz

The Economist Magazine is building a paywall to limit the number of articles which readers can access online for free, the latest sign that publishers are rethinking their attitude towards free web content.

Only articles from the past 90 days will be available to the general browser, rather than 12 months under the current system. From the 13th of October, when something over 90 days will be behind a big old pay wall and therefore will be available only to paying subscribers.

In another news, only subscribers may utilize the “This Week In Print” , which allows users to access the magazine in a digital format.

I’m assuming this is similar to what many News Corp sites will begin rolling out as well.

Source: CNET

Google, the internet and Silicon Valley’s pacemaker said it will increase spending according to it’s CEO Eric Schmidt.

We are clearly seeing aspects of recovery, and what is notable is that we’re seeing aspects of recovery not just in the United States but in Europe. I had been in error in assuming that there would be a lag, that it would the U.S. first and Europe second. Asia, of course, was never significantly hit in the first place.

So that means from a Google perspective that…we never stopped hiring, but we told our team internally and again, we’ve said to many other people that we are increasing our hiring rate and our investment rate in anticipation of a recovery.

The key point of recovery appears to be a slow but steady recovery in European markets which many thought would take another year or two to recover to this point.

Source: All Things D

ePay It Forward?
You’ve no doubt watched or at least heard of the movie Pay It Forward, with Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and the incomparable Haley Joel Osment, who sees dead people. The title of the movie is a phrase that means, essentially, that you can make the world a better place by making the lives of a few people better. They don’t pay you back but when they’re able, they pay it forward by doing the same for a few other people.

Well website eKudoz wants to do something similar using messages. Send a nice message, congrats, kudos, to two people who will hopefully do the same to two more. This is a great social experiment and seems to have a grounding in the concept of Six Degrees of Separation. A story related to Six Degrees involves an experiment where people had to send out two letters addressed to someone they didn’t know by sending them to someone they did, who would in turn repeat the process.

More Streaming Video Sites: Pyro TV, UStream TV
The latest entries in the streaming video website wars are Pyro TV and UStream TV.

Pyro’s interface is clean, with video playing on the top half of your browser screen and tabbed listings on the bottom half. But I don’t see anything all that different about Pyro.TV compared to any other video sharing site, other than an abundance of content from specific TV channels such as Cartoon Network. Am I missing something?

UStream has nothing visually outstanding. They do push the social aspect by highlighting members, offering a link to their profiles and allowing several types of communication: message, 1-on-1 text chat and 1-on-1 video chat.

Now, given that you can search for various types of people (single, swinger, married, etc.) who are looking for various types of meetups (dating casual and serious, networking, etc.), you’d figure they’ve for some reason combined a dating site with a video sharing site. Speed dating, anyone? There’s a section for it.

Not saying that it can’t work, just that I don’t judge my potential partners only by what video content they watch. Just strikes me as odd.

NY Times: Top Newspaper Website
According to the Neilsen/NetRatings, the NY Times website was the top newspaper website for February, followed closely by USA Today and the Washington Post. Editor and Publisher has the full top 30 list.

Blame Canada. For Being Boring?
Apparently, the Washington Post is the last American newspaper to have a Canadian bureau. Or was, now that they’re closing their Toronto office. Ah well. Just wait until both countries merge, maybe 20 years down the road. Or sooner, if the Prime Minister sells the country over.

Have Blogs Jumped The Shark?
Last week, while flipping channels, I came across Friday night’s WWE wrestling. The ringside announcers blabbered on about how the two lead female wrestlers were having a blog battle. Does this actually interest anyone other than twelve year olds who think wrestling is real?  It’s one thing to follow an athlete’s thoughts, and yet another to follow a fake battle – i.e., fiction – in blog form.

Off With Her Head?
Danny Bonaduce, radio host and talentless ex-Partridge Family child star, calls for the execution of Rosie O’Donnell, the loudmouth, opinionated TV host and Tom Cruise-salivator. That’s right, execution. Last I heard, there was something called free speech in the United States. Whether you like O’Donnell or not, a rational human being must realize that what Bonaduce is saying could be construed as counselling to commit a murder – which IS a crime. I’m not sure if the US applies the death penalty for sedition, but maybe they can get Bonaduce at the same time on a dope charge. Dope as in utterly stupid. Then again, this could be one of those stupid April Fool’s jokes conducted days early.

London Calling
If you’ve never believed in Big Brother, you might reconsider, at least in the UK. (It’s been said that George Orwell knew what was coming because he had insider sources in the British government.) The UK has been described as an endemic surveillance society because of all the public cameras, watching your every move.

Now things get even better. Whether you’re a blogger or a journalist, if you are out in the field covering a story and have a camera, press credentials are not going to be enough to not get searched. It seems, every citizen has become a threat, and police officers can stop you for any reason at any time. [A UK source tells me that this is in fact the way life is there now.]

What Are You Paid For Your Writing?
London Freelance has an interesting collection of rate tables for online, print, broadcasting, and photographic content. These are actual rates collected together from numerous publications from around the world, ordered by publication, not date of collection.

Now if you’re a blogger/writer looking at these tables, before you go screaming for more money, consider the ad revenue of the publications you write for, as well as your own experience. These have always been a factor for print rates and are no doubt the case online. You might want to check out their fees guide, which gives suggestions for what to charge for different types of content.

While the rates are in British Pounds, even the same numbers in US$ mean promising returns for those of us that are “pro” bloggers.

Would You Watch Ads On Your Cell Phone?
Some people seem to think that you and I would be willing to watch ads on our cell phones in return for free calling minutes. A Harris Interactive survey suggests, however, that more people would prefer cash before minutes, and fewer people would accept free ringtones or discount coupons. I don’t know. Would you want to watch ads on your cell phone? I’d think the incentive would have to be high.

Who Reads More? Print or Online Readers?
You’ve probably read or heard that online readers only browse, have short attention spans, and probably don’t finish anything they start reading. That’s probably true of those that subscribe to hundreds of feeds, but a Poynter Institute study, Eyetrack, suggests that online readers actually complete more stories than print readers.

Twitter From the Founders’ Viewpoint
Alexandra Berzon at Red Herring gives a nice explanation of the success of Twitter from the founders’ point of view, and how the blogging of influential people such as Steve Rubel and Robert Scoble contributed significantly to that success.

More Print Mags Go Bye-Bye
Life Magazine, which was revived some time in the 1980s, will be publishing one last print issue. After that, their only presence will be online. Child Magazine is also ending print life but will have an online presence as part of a portal.

Newspapers may not be dead yet, but magazines sure are dropping. Though it’s good to hear that many are maintaining online presences.

The Money’s In Social Networks
Print mags might be finding focusing on online editions more profitable, but in the meantime, MySpace is pulling in about US$30M in revenue. Per month, that is.

Minority Journalists Increasing Or Decreasing?
Editor and Publisher magazine reports that the percentage of minority journalists in the US decreased since last year, according to an annual survey by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. E&P also points out that the actual number of minority journalists actually increased by 200. Furthermore, of the 2,000 full-time journalists only working online for a newspaper, 16% were minorities.

I would think, though, that the percentage of full-time “minority” bloggers online is much higher. Of course, online, how do you define “minority”?