GOOD NEWS FOR BLOGGERS: Technorati Teams With The Associated Press to Connect Bloggers To More Than 440 Newspapers

By Peter Hirshberg

Technorati and the Associated Press have initiated a service to connect bloggers to more than 440 AP member newspapers in the United States.

The Associated Press is the world's largest and oldest news service organization serving media outlets worldwide; it's a fundamental backbone to the mainstream media. Several months ago we and The Associated Press began to talk about about how citizen-generated media could enhance the AP in their mission to be "the essential global news network."

Increasingly, what the blogosphere says about a news story becomes part of a more complete story, lending diverse perspectives and often expert commentary. The AP believed it was increasingly important to deliver the living blogosphere as a compliment to their their core professional news product.

As a first step, Technorati is now connecting bloggers to the more than 440 AP member web sites in the U.S. that take the AP's Hosted Custom News product, taken by local papers such as the Buffalo News or the Sun Journal.

The new service will bring blogger commentary about AP news stories to communities large and small throughout the USA, giving bloggers a voice in trusted local papers throughout the nation. For many news readers, this will be their first exposure to the blogosphere with national, international, business and sports news presented along side links to blogger commentary and perspective.

When readers visit an AP member Web site that uses AP Hosted Custom News, they will see a module featuring the "Top Five Most Blogged About" AP articles right next to the article text, dynamically powered by Technorati.Additionally, when readers click on an AP article, Technorati will deliver "Who’s Blogging About" that article.

Now, if you have commentary about an AP story, you can get mentioned in that module simply by linking to that AP news URL, akin to what you can do with Washington Post articles, Newsweek articles, Der Spiegel articles, and a host of other media partners that currently work with Technorati.

We're delighted to be working with the AP and thrilled that blogger voices will now be heard in several hundred local on-line news organizations across the USA. I believe that this is a deep validation of the power of citizen media and how each person is gaining more power - power to have their opinions and thoughts heard, in a truly democratic process.