The AP paints itself further into a corner

I might not be the biggest Google fan around but there are some arguments used against the search giant that, even at face value, are ridiculous. Such is the case with the fight between the Associated Press (AP) and Google. On the one side we have a creaking antiquated organization that in of itself wouldn’t exist without the consent of the old media news organization claiming that Google is getting rich by stealing AP’s content. As far as Google is concerned all they are doing is the same thing they have always done – index the world’s information.

This argument that Google is stealing news content isn’t anything new. It is the same argument that is trotted out every time that some news mogul wraps his lips around a microphone. This was the case not long ago when the AP threaten legal, and legislative, action against all news aggregators as the AP attempted to shore up its business model.

Now Forbes is reporting that the Associated Press is back at it again. Why? because they want to develop what they call “news maps” but guess what – they will need Google’s help.

The AP, a 163-year-old cooperative owned by news organizations, won’t discuss its talks with Google, but plans to create landing pages and Web-based “news maps” directing users to original AP stories (and away from secondary sources who post material “borrowed” from the AP). To do this, the AP needs Google’s help. Most likely that means Google creating search protocols similar to those created from the licensing deal the AP inked with Google in 2006.

So what does the AP do during the negotiations with Google over content and compensation?

They threaten that if Google doesn’t strike the right deal with the AP, and soon, “They will not get our copy going forward.” Great way to influence and win friends eh.

The thing is that the AP might have been just the greatest thing to happen to the old med news business but the key word there is – have. Or, should that more appropriately be – has been, because that is what the organization is very quickly becoming. This is because the very news organizations that have filled the AP’s coffers are either having to re-evaluate their own use of the Associated Press or are going out of business.

At this point all the this bluster from the AP is nothing more than trying as hard as they can to keep their life support machines running by whatever method they can. What they don’t realize is that the plug to those machines are getting pulled making their days numbered.