Paid news content may be making a comeback. The Associated Press said Friday that it will set up a division to help its member newspapers and broadcasters sell content to the new generation of content devices, including tablet computers and e-readers.
AP President and CEO Tom Curley told the Colorado Press Association convention in Denver that the new division, called AP Gateway, will provide a “launching pad” for content from AP and other publishers.
A ‘Variety of Ways’
The announcement follows by a few weeks reports that The New York Times will charge for parts of its content. There have also been a flurry of announcements from various book and magazine publishers, who are forming relationships and associations to offer their content to the growing base of e-readers and tablets. The newest content devices include Apple’s recently announced iPad tablet, Amazon’s Kindle e-reader, smartphones and netbooks.
Curley told the CPA that the AP is exploring a “variety of ways” to offer content. He described three basic ways for making money with digital content — advertising, syndication and subscriptions. He said the new division will build on all three.
The first product from AP Gateway is a paid subscription application for the iPad, which is being released later this month. AP already has a free iPhone application, called AP Mobile.
The new iPad app will offer customized packages of stories, photos, and videos from AP on a paid subscription basis. AP members will also be able to build on the same service to offer their own iPad apps.
Still in ‘Fact-Finding Mode’
After an initial burst of paid content models in the early days of the public Internet, there have been only a limited number of successful paid models, such those at The Wall Street Journal and Consumer Reports. Curley told the convention that surveys show 80…