On July 2nd the Guardian UK released their WordPress plugin. Said plugin allows bloggers to grab a feed of articles from the Guardian and re-post them on their own blogs. Of course, since this is proprietary content there are a few stipulations, however none so obtrusive as to prevent any sane news blog editor from using this service regularly. The terms of service are pretty simple, and they read as follows:
1. Changes: You mustn’t remove or alter the text, links or images you get from us.
2. Key: If you don’t have a key, get one here. It’s required. If you do have one, please don’t share it or use it anywhere else.
3. Ads: Articles come with ads and performance tracking embedded in them. As above, you mustn’t change or remove them. You can, of course, use your own ads elsewhere on your blog, too.
4. Deletions: Sometimes but very rarely we have to remove articles. When that happens, this plug-in will replace the withdrawn Guardian content within your blog post with a message saying that the content is not available anymore.
We think these are pretty fair and easy rules to follow and rule number 3 may be the answer to monetizing the online news world in a sustainable and progressive way.
Think of the opportunity that presents itself from this, the news paper / news agency can have their content syndicated to the millions of blogs that they claim have been taking readership away and still make money from it, and the readers get better news because there is that much more incentive to write news that readers feel is important and want to read. It’s really a win win!
For more information take a look at the full “Open Platform” service offering over at the Guardian’s website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/open-platform