The AP's Latest Flabbergasting Idea

(MoneyWatch)  At first, I'd hoped this was a parody of a news story, not an actual news story, but the Associated Press is not known for self-parody, so here goes.

"The Associated Press is considering whether to sell news stories to some online customers exclusively for a certain period, perhaps half an hour, the head of the news organization said Tuesday."
The source for this report is the AP itself.

The news cooperative's CEO, Tom Curley, as quoted by the AP, explained that "products can be reserved, and there can be exclusives given, perhaps on a time-base measure. Those who get access to that content and the rich multimedia or metadata that comes with it might get an exclusive for, oh, 20 or 30 minutes."

This sounds like the type of vision that might be induced by an acid trip. Where is the market for such a service? Could such a limitation be enforced? The answers, so far as I know, are "No," and "No."

So, will somebody please sit Mr. Curley down and explain to him there is this thing called The Internet? And how it works?
Thanks (I think) to my colleague Cathy Taylor for pointing me to this astonishing story. To the AP, I sincerely apologize for not being able to tell your story using only four of your words or less -- another of those curious AP ideas Cathy and I have been pondering here at Bnet.

(Links to some of our earlier coverage below.)
The Good Old AP Does It Again
Note to AP, Media: Bloggers/Search Engines R Your Best Friends
Hey AP: Take This Test
AP's Top News Stories for August 5th, in Four Words Or Less
Top AP Business/Tech Stories for August 4th (in 4 Words or Less)
AP's Biz Model is Just a Four-letter Word
Someone, Quick, Place the AP on Suicide Watch
The AP, Publishers, Battle an Imaginary Army of Pirates