And another reason for companies and organizations to take an interest in actively listening and monitoring consumer generated media.
There has been much talk in the blogosphere about how bloggers simply amplify the news. The Project for Excellence in Journalism recently released a 2006 report that estimates only 5 percent of blog posts are original reporting. (And yes, it is 5 percent and not the 1 percent widely reported thoroughout the PR blogosphere based on an erroneous reading of a New York Times article that said only 1 percent did inteviews, with 5 percent doing some other original reporting like reviewing documents).
Now, 440-plus smaller newspapers that use the AP’s Hosted Custom News product are turning this around and repackaging this free content to compliment the stories they write.
I just did a little test drive the new AP offering, which is enhanced by blog data provided by Technorati and also gives a handy link back to more complete Technorati search data.
I tested two articles. The first is the most blogged about AP story in the last 48 hours:
Ind. Coroner Regrets Case of Mistaken ID, which is the story about the two women that were misidentified after a horrific car crash in Indianapolis, Ind.
There is a box to the lower right of the story that gives to a link to three blogs that mention this story (see graphic in post to the right).
Also an interesting story to bloggers because the family of Laura VanRyn had been keeping a blog about the condition of the woman that they thought was their daughter but turned out to be Whitney Cerek.
The other is a story about online advertising boosting newspaper ad sales, which no one has blogged about yet.
Since no one has written about it yet, the box includes a list of the most blogged about stories in the last 48 hours. Of course, this post might mess that up, but we can call it a test of the system. (Update: the article now carries a Communications Overtone link, I will track the traffic over the next 24 hours, if any)
I think that this is an interesting step, but I wonder how the local papers feel about it. Moreover, I wonder how many readers will click through the blog links? I would love to see the data. I will track any traffic I get and report it here.
How do you think this will change the way people read and find blogs, i.e. will there be more people reading blogs and not realizing where they are?
Will this change the way bloggers choose which stories they will link to get more traffic?
