I’ve been thinking for a while that just about anyone could set up a news wire service that would be a heck of a lot better than AP, with just a password protected website.
Not only could it include subscribers such as interested old media, but a lot of new media as well. It would work by blending facets of other, commercial and non-commercial websites. The articles within would be semi-copyrighted, only for commercial use by members, and non-commercial use by the public.
So no Righthaven b.s.
It would work by having an upload/download ratio for stories. If you want to republish someone else’s news, you have to contribute some of your own news, *that other people want*. If you just post lame stories that nobody wants, you are less able to download other people’s stuff.
Add to that the popularity of stories also boosting the contributors upload ratio, and *editorial reviews* and *criticisms* of articles, as well as feedback and requests for follow-ups.
Technically, all this stuff exists, and could be blended into a site. And amusingly, since only say 1,000 users, worldwide, would use the site, it wouldn’t have even medium demand put on bandwidth.
Members could still pay for stories, if they had nothing to upload, but only modest fees, split between the website and the original article source.
Once set up, the site could solicit contributions from around the world that its members might want to republish. Status on the site is strictly based on popularity of what you upload, and the quality of your content.
Even freelance writers and photographers can contribute, as long as they maintain a good ratio. It would look very good on a resume to be published by some big names.
Sort of like FRee Republic? We already do a lot of that here.