NEW YORK: The Associated Press and Medialink have ended their exclusive VNR distribution agreement, allowing PR Newswire and partner Orbis Broadcast Group to affiliate with the news-gathering giant.
NEW YORK: The Associated Press and Medialink have ended their
exclusive VNR distribution agreement, allowing PR Newswire and partner
Orbis Broadcast Group to affiliate with the news-gathering giant.
Under the terms of the old arrangement, Medialink enjoyed the exclusive
right to transmit notifications of VNRs and other news advisories on the
AP’s proprietary AP Express Network, which reaches approximately 800 TV
newsrooms. Now, however, PRN and Orbis will be allowed to do the
same.
’We started actively speaking to AP when it became clear that many of
our clients were putting video with their news releases,’ said PRN VP of
sales David Armon, who said the agreement was formalized at the end of
November.
Though Medialink will continue to distribute VNR notification via the AP
Express (and has expanded its relationship with the company to include
audio news distribution), signs point to a chill in the Medialink/AP
relationship.
’We are always looking for ways to innovate,’ said Medialink EVP and
head of the company’s US operations Mark Manoff. ’But we didn’t want to
be tied to a wire service which is effective but not set up for the 21st
century.’
Manoff did not say which party initiated the end of the exclusive
AP/Medialink arrangement, and phone calls to AP marketing executives had
not been returned as of press time.
Manoff said the move was motivated by a desire to free up extra money
for re-investment in the company’s own service offerings, but declined
to give further details. The Nasdaq-listed Medialink is said to be
reallocating funds in order to expand relationships with online news
sites, and has set up its own e-mail news notification system.
The expanded Medialink/AP audio distribution arrangement allows
Medialink to deliver audio news releases and reports to radio stations
that subscribe to two Internet-delivered AP audio feeds, AP PrimeCuts
(which distributes breaking news bulletins) and AP SoundBank (an archive
of sound bites and recent radio news stories).
