Real News in Real Time

The Guardian interviewed Tom Curley, the Associated Press chief who will be stepping down after nine years of service with the news organization.  In the interview Mr. Curley discusses the modernization of the AP through the economic downturn, its legal battles with Google over news content licensing rights and most intriguing in my view the speed at which news is delivered.

Mr. Curley estimates the news cycle period pre 9/11 was about twelve hours but post 9/11 it has shrunk to three hours.  He also estimates with the younger demographic and with social media gaining rampant usage the news cycle may have shrunk to 30 minutes and growing shorter.  For clarification the news cycle is the period of time when all the people interested in a story have access to it.

Large scale News Organizations such as the AP are having tremendous difficulty competing with social media to break news stories as they happen in real time.  It’s hard to compete with an eye witness that has a smart phone with access to Twitter or Facebook who is able to provide a first hand account of the activities that are happening directly in front of them.  The area that news organizations do have a clear advantage is the ability to validate claims and ensure the appropriate reporting steps have been taken.

Why not take this advantage and create a new business channel to ensure quality news is being reported.  If large scale News Organizations offer a news validation service that was extremely fast and guaranteed you as the individual coming to them had first rights to post this information with a seal of approval by the AP, CNN or the Guardian the amount of quality and verified posts via Twitter or Facebook would be so much greater.  I would try and replicate Apple’s model for music downloads to keep this affordable for greater participation.  Imagine if you had a news worthy story that you witness and had an easy way to contact a news organization (mobile app or website), who in turn time stamped your news submission and then turned around and validated your claim.  If the story is true the news entity will charge you 99 cents or a small amount to verify and provide you with a time stamped seal of approval and provide a grace window where you have the luxury to post a certified news scoop.

There will always be a segment that opts not to use this service and go ahead and post the information without any type of validation.  One could argue that in the long run you will have a greater number that choose to validate to ensure the source is legitimate whether it is to post to a small group of friends or the entire world but for a small nominal fee it allows everyone to participate in accurate story telling.