Well it finally arrived. The Associated Press iPhone app. The difference with this app is that is has push functionality. “Push functionality, wtf is that Ern?” you ask. Push functionality means that the app does not have to be open for it to update you of something happening. In the case of The Associated Press app if a breaking story hits their newswires the app wakes up your iPhone and tells you that headline. It is awesome and will change the way all apps will work in the future.
You can also share any story from The Associated Press app by selecting the share icon at the bottom of every story. The cool thing if you look at the picture above (click to enlarge) is the locations you can share to. You can text it to a friend, you can email it, you can share it through your Twitter stream and you can send it to your Facebook wall.
Awesome stuff hey? Well I have some concerns. If we all download this app onto our iPhone and iPod Touches and use this as our way to get news, what will happen to our local newspapers? Will we stop reading them? Will we visit their websites and interact with them?
Why the concern? I forgot to mention in this app you can set it to glean news relevant to your zip code … yep your local news via this app. Where will this leave an already under pressure industry? I worry that this app will make us lazy in hunting for news relevant to ourselves. Why look for it when it can come to you? Why fire up my browser and visit my local papers website?
I love local news and will still interact with and buy my local newspaper. Will you?
Very good question. The AP, at least the AP I work with, pulls in stories we (the small, local newspaper I work for) send it. The have their own writers and staff, of course, but they tend to focus more on either state-wide (ie. legislature) issues or national ones. Not what happened in the Smalltown, NE city council meeting last night (unless it relates to something state-wide, such as my town's current state fair issue.) That's where the AP relies on us to feed it stories.
But if now they're taking those stories we give them and pushing them out in this App (which I bet is something they will develop for other phones as well, not just iPhone/Touches, but Blackberries etc.) You have a valid point. Why bother coming to the newspaper website when I can get local news on my device as they come in.
So should small newspapers scramble to find a way to develop an app themselves? It probably isn't viable, because the reach is limited (only a finite number of people are going to want to install a GI Independent app) and we simply do not have the tech available in-house to develop such a thing. Is it now up to us to find some other reason to make out site attractive – other than what we have going for us which is our local content? Do we focus on the community building more than ever with commenting, twitter, facebook, friendfeed etc?
These are the things we struggle with all the time. I don't actually think the AP app is going to do us in or anything, but it's an interesting thing to think about. Thanks for the blog on it. Can't wait to try the app myself when 3.0 is available.
Fabulous points Steph. I did forget to say in the post that you can submit stories to AP via the app which is very cool.
My main concern at the end is will we as consumers stop visiting you the newspapers websites? I am concerned because I know the websites are used as a revenue stream with adds etc.
You can submit stories yourself? Do they take everything and republish or are they choosey about it?
As for revenue, we struggle mightily with revenue online. We're doing good things with Twitter and our live chat, but neither of them make us any money yet. And we haven't worked out how – with Twitter. We've got ideas for the chat. Was the AP app a free one since it's in beta and does it say whether they will charge for it once it's in wide release?
Ahh Steph, I have seen how much effort you put into your online presence and am in awe of what you achieve.
Yes can submit stories yourself and attach pictures, just like sending a long Tweet. I think they may check the stories to verify them first, not sure on AP's policy on that one. You can contact them at apmobile@ap.org
So far the AP app has ads within it, not sure if the final release will be ad driven or paid for.