Culture

Associated Press Disses CNN iPhone App

by Truemorist | September 29, 2009 at 08:51 am

196 views | 2 Recommendations | 3 comments

The Associated Press is dissing CNN for releasing an iPhone App that costs $1.99, stating that iPhone users are too cheap to buy such an app. The AP cites its own dismal failure with a $3 Crackberry app, which is sort of an unfair comparison, since CNN's app is for user generated content, and costs a buck less, and the AP's Blackberry app is... dumb. Even if it worked, it would still only be a reader, which seems pointless, since it's marketed toward web-enabled phones. Surely a Blackberry user can just bust open a browser window?

This critique, though, seems extra-hypocritical in light of the AP's own iPhone app... which costs $30. Sorry, that's $30 per year. And it's only access to the AP style guide. Great, so you want me to pay for access for info on how to write for a newspaper? Pass.

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The_Cynic

at 22:32 on September 29th, 2009

Why the hell do people still even entertain AP?

Reuters is still, and has said to continue, be free - Reuters likes the Ad concept - AP just wants to be a greedy bastard!

CNN's App will succeed - why? Because it is user generated, AP is "professional" - citizen journalism can take off - but those who run it need to start understanding the CitJourno and utilise them - even if it means paying them a little bit of cash. They WILL bring readers because they are on the same level as the reader themselves.

See Norton Vs Free Anti-virus. It is corporate paying corporate to install - and even MS has now launched its own freebie because people can't ot won't pay.

Bye, bye AP.

hidflect

at 04:57 on September 30th, 2009

I agree. In fact, it's common knowledge AP simply acts as the tool of various "interested" parties, bending the news coverage a few percent one way or the other based on the influence of its operators in critical times. Beyond that, it has no real revenue model. A propaganda outlet pure and simple.

I should clear something up though; Reuters makes VAST amounts of money through its virtually monopolistic trading systems for the finance industry with a dozen more other proprietary business information systems. This funds its news service which is merely a flagship service on which it loses money. The bias is limited as a result.

I've been a customer of Reuters financial services for years in the past and now work IN Thomson Reuters so I know what I'm talking about.

Jim L (not verified)

at 06:42 on October 1st, 2009

The problem I see with this app is that if you upload anything to CNN they own it. After that I bet they would sue you for putting your own picture on your own site.