I am missing something. I truly think that Associated Press’ new asap service is quite interesting, but my concern is that newspaper clients won’t understand how best to exploit/implement the product. Like other AP products, it’s a mix of content that is put in the hands of newspaper editors to use at their discretion as part of their mix. Certainly, editors have decades of experience on using AP-generated pictures, stories, features, etc…
I wonder (out loud) is there a “suggested uses” of asap that come with the product? No two papers are organized in the same fashion regarding their online products. Take my word for it. For some folks in the online newspaper world, the creative ideas will flow on how best to exploit asap…for others, well, they will be clueless.
This raises the issue of whether AP ever will decide to offer asap directly to the younger readers for whom this product is targeted. At that point, the AP business model changes and it becomes a competitor to the market it has been serving for seemingly forever.
