Alt weeklies eye an AP of their own with a content exchange

NiemanJournalismLab reporting: The Association of Alternative Newsmedia is building out a kind of wire service to allow alternative news sites to share content with each other — and maybe make some money.
The recently launched AltWeeklies Content Exchange lets papers like the Boston Phoenix, Minneapolis’ City Pages or Oakland’s East Bay Express swap stories, photos, video, or other interactive multimedia to bolster their coverage of national news. While AAN members will be able to use the material for free, outside news organizations — think newspapers, broadcast networks, or news sites — will be able to pay to license it. On a local level, the exchange would also create a platform for citizens and freelancers to offer (or sell) work to their local weekly. (Or another AAN member: The “N” switched from “Newsweeklies” to “Newsmedia” last summer, and the group has started admitting alternative online-only news sites.)
What AAN is trying to do is take advantage of scale — providing extra copy for its members as well as larger, mainstream outlets that don’t have the time or resources to cover the issues the weeklies specialize in. If the program proves successful it would not only increase the amount of journalism readers are exposed to, but it could contribute to papers revenue, said Tiffany Shackelford, executive director of the AAN.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2012/03/alt-weeklies-eye-an-ap-of-their-own-with-a-content-exchange/