News Writing Will Stand Strong

News writing versus writing off the top of your head. Is the Associated Press really dead?

Well, according to an article in WebProNews, that is the presumed scenario.

Rich Ord, CEO of iEntry, writes: "The old news order is dead, the AP will have to adapt or die."

He says the explosion of blogs and news aggregation sites will kill off AP, which is suing Moreover.com for linking to its stories.

To me, this highlights an ignorance of what journalism is. The lack of knowledge of the media industry is enhanced by the statement: "In the pre-Internet days the AP had little competition beyond a few other news syndicators like Reuters and UPI".

Maybe in the United States. But where is Agence France-Presse, a news agency that is equally good as Reuters? And as for UPI, well ... many news outlets gave them up long time ago.

The main point Ord has missed is that news agencies such as AP, Reuters and AFP cater to a completely different market.

Blogs and news aggregation sites are brilliant. As long as copyright laws are adhered to, you can pull together the best and latest stories in the world and stick them on to a single portal for easy consumption.

New agencies primarily cater to other outlets, such as newspapers, Internet websites, magazines, television and radio stations and others who require news written by qualified journalists employing proper journalism standards to gather, write and deliver news articles.

Of course, not all journalists are good or ethical but they work within a coded industry in which they are (often) accountable) and must stick to certain standards.

Do you get bloggers with accreditation for White House press conferences? How many bloggers would take the time to interview newsmakers? How many would verify a source?

Maybe some would, but the truth is, they can still write whatever they want, true or false, and post it on their blogs.

AP doesn't do that. Whatever they write, whoever they quote, they must ensure its veracity. The same goes for Reuters, AFP, UPI and other global and regional news agencies.

They also use the tried and tested news writing methods used by journalists all over the world.

Blogging and aggregation are great additions to the media family. However, AP do not need to feel threatened.

However, Ord is right in that, as in any industry, AP and other journalists must keep up with an evolving environment and tailor the way news is written and delivered to meet the needs of a changing market.

But until bloggers use the same principles of writing, sourcing and delivering as journalists, their genre will remain "blogging" and not "news". Both can live side by side and both can enjoy healthy growth.