The Associated Press (AP) and NowPublic.com, a Canadian based crowd sourcing news portal similar to the well known South Korean citizen news site OhMyNews, have signed an distribution deal that will “explore” ways of bringing citizen generated content into AP news feeds.
Both companies said the deal would expand worldwide access to local news “as it happens” as well as providing opportunities to syndicate NowPublic material via AP.
“The Associated Press has a long tradition of pursuing citizen contributions in breaking news events worldwide,” said Jim Kennedy, AP’s vice president and director of strategic planning. “This relationship will make that connection even stronger and result in more news and images from people who are in the right place at the right time.”
Contributions to AP news from NowPublic’s network of citizen journalists could take many forms over time, said AP Deputy Managing Editor for Multimedia Lou Ferrara. “They could range from simple eyewitness accounts to originally produced content.â€
Initially AP will be working with NowPublic to expand it’s regional coverage in locations that are otherwise insufficiently or not covered by AP reporters and existing agents, as well as coverage of virtual communities, such as social networks and contributed content sites.
(source: AP release)
Originally posted on February 9, 2007 @ 9:25 pm