Reuters prez: "Why I believe in the link economy"

Chris Ahearn, President of Media at Thomson Reuters, has an opinion piece out today which amounts to a response to recent hysterical, illogical, and counterproductive acts on the part of Associated Press management with regard to content-sharing online (and "journalism piracy").

To start, yes the global economy is fairly grim and the cyclical aspects of our business are biting extremely hard in the face of the structural changes. But the Internet isn't killing the news business any more than TV killed radio or radio killed the newspaper. Incumbent business leaders in news haven't been keeping up. Many leaders continue to help push the business into the ditch by wasting "resources" (management speak for talented people) on recycling commodity news. Reader habits are changing and vertically curated views need to be meshed with horizontal read-around ones.

Blaming the new leaders or aggregators for disrupting the business of the old leaders, or saber-rattling and threatening to sue are not business strategies - they are personal therapy sessions. Go ask a music executive how well it works.

A better approach is to have a general agreement among community members to treat others' content, business and ideas with the same respect you would want them to treat yours. If you are doing something that you would object to if others did it to you - stop. If you don't want search engines linking to you, insert code to ban them.

Why I believe in the Link Economy (reuters.com). We have a linking policy here at Boing Boing, by the way.

[#1 posted by gwizah, August 6, 2009 9:54 AM]

Do you ever have Déjà vu?

[#2 posted by Variable Rush, August 6, 2009 10:08 AM]

Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

[#3 posted by Ugly Canuck, August 6, 2009 10:16 AM]

Variable:Yes I have: but only religious types call her "the Devil".

[#4 posted by Xeni Jardin, August 6, 2009 10:19 AM]

devil with a blue dress on.

[#5 posted by skinnedmink, August 6, 2009 10:42 AM]

Can anyone explain what "Reader habits are changing and vertically curated views need to be meshed with horizontal read-around ones." means?

[#6 posted by dculberson, August 6, 2009 11:03 AM]

"I like jargon and outright industry babble and am not afraid to use it in press releases."

[#7 posted by flosofl, August 6, 2009 11:32 AM]

@SKINNEDMINK

I had an work e-mail this morning that contained the phrase: "define the education vertical". My coworkers and I are still trying to decode that one.

I swear, business speak seems to be more like postmodernism every day.

[#8 posted by Moriarty, August 6, 2009 12:00 PM]

Just a guess, but perhaps it has to do with vertical vs. horizontal integration. As in, a local source covering lots of different topics vs. a niche source with global readership? Or something...

[#9 posted by Boba Fett Diop, August 6, 2009 12:49 PM]

Skinnedmink,

It is marketing jargon for "some of your readers will get there through your portal or front page, others will get there through links from other locations. You need to take both into account."

[#10 posted by Anonymous, August 6, 2009 1:40 PM]

In fact, I'd bet the vertical part is only used by employees, and he's aware of this. He's met digg and reddit and sees the futility of the newspaper or TV-news structured site.

[#11 posted by mypalmike, August 6, 2009 1:57 PM]

Almost everyone's views are vertically curated. But I once knew someone whose views were horizontal read-around.