This article calls for senior officials from Yahoo! and Associated Content to either separately or collectively produce a consistent statement for the public, regarding the future of Associated Content’s website once this deal goes down in the third quarter. Please stop the bleeding and let the wound begin to heal.
Yahoo! shook the world on May 18, 2010 when they publicly announced that it was their intention to acquire Associated Content. Unfortunately, like Brett Favre commanding his Green Packers against the New York Giants in 2008 or leading his Minnesota Vikings against the New Orleans Saints in 2010, someone threw an interception. However, in this case I hope all is not lost.
When the Associated Press initially published this story on May 18, 2010, it stated that Yahoo! intended to close the Associated Content website sometime in the third quarter when the acquisition was complete. Read it here: Yahoo buys freelance news site Associated Content. Once this news hit the wires, it was plastered all over the internet. Some of Associated Content’s contributors seemed startled, confused and scared about this announcement.
To the Associated Press’s credit on May 19, 2010 it released this updated article: Yahoo buys freelance news site Associated Content. Initially, I was pleased with this update. However, today I view this sequence of events from a new perspective.
What is the big deal and what is the basis for this request? Well today is May 20, 2010 and though on the internet things can change quickly, I challenge you to visit Google and search the terms “yahoo” “associated content” “associated press.” I am sure everyone’s results will be slightly different. For me these were the top two search results:
http://www.google.com/hostednews
Unfortunately, these two articles refer to the May 18, 2010 Associated Press article. This is unfortunate, because Associated Press produced another article on May 19, 2010 that changed Yahoo!’s statement regarding its plans for the Associated Content website. The error is magnified because, the first Google search result is the Associated Press article itself and the second is the Yahoo! news site through which the Associated Press distributed its article. It too references the outdated May 18, 2010 Associated Press article.
If you continue to click the first page of links that Google provides for the search terms “yahoo” “associated content” “associated press” you will discover a mixed bag of links, referring to mostly the May 18, 2010 or May 19, 2010 Associated Press articles. That is just on the first page of the Google search results. If you keep clicking links, without a keen eye, it is difficult to notice the differences between the two Associated Press articles.
With two versions of the Associated Press story buzzing around the World Wide Web faster than a game of foursquare, many opinion pieces are being generated and published that are referencing the wrong piece of information. Accordingly, it seems possible that people are being misinformed. This is not a case of a mom and pop corner store taking over another shop. This is a multi-million dollar acquisition with potentially profound consequences. Yahoo! is a publicly traded company. Associated Content, according to its home page, as of this writing lays claim to publishing over 2,137,034 online pieces of content. The official May 18, 2010 Yahoo! press makes reference to 380,000 Associated Content Contributors and that “Associated Content receives more than 16 million unique users per month (comScore)”
It is not my intent to rain on anyone’s parade, but I do believe that something needs to be done to insure that the public is provided with the information to which it seems as though that they are entitled.
http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=471175
Originally published on Associated Content / Yahoo Contributor Network (YCN) on May 20, 2010
Note: Edited to consistently use the ! in Yahoo!’s official name, unless referencing a source that does not use that punctuation mark.
© Copyright, Han Van Meegerin – All Rights Reserved
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Han Van Meegerin
