The Editors Weblog spoke to the AP’s director of strategic planning Jim Kennedy to find out more clearly what the AP’s search plans entail and what their implications are. Would I be a complete jackass if I admit finding this article via Google News? I think there are two flawed assumptions in Jim Kennedy’s thinking.
- “AP believes that currently, the mechanisms provided to consumers for news searching are inadequate.” Wonderful. Do audiences agree? When I’ve tested panels they don’t seem to have any problem with aggregators and quite enjoy using them. Can experiences be made better? Sure. Inadequate? TBD.
- “Search engines ‘point people indiscriminately’ towards sources, rather than towards the news’ local paper which should have the most authoritative article.” This assumes that indiscriminate sourcing is bad and that the local paper does have the most pertinent reporting.
Good luck AP.
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