Associated Press to offer monetization

The Associated Press isn't just a news feed service any longer. A new tool from the company will allow online content distributors to monetize the content on their websites. The tool is geared toward local users and local advertisers.

by Kristina Knight

The new offering allows affiliate sites the ability to sell local advertising against the content on their websites, content that is fed to them by the AP. If content sites don't want that kind of hassle, they can allow Microsoft to oversee the ad-selling aspect of the partnership.

Bill Burke, AP's director of online video said (in a prepared statement), "We've seen some early adopters dramatically increase stream counts by using this capability, which allows affiliates to keep all their video in one place, and which lets them sell local advertising against it."

The content on the site can be locally or geographically targeted, enabling a better contextual target for the content and the ads.

Local online advertising has shown a fast growth rate in the past 24 months and that growth rate is expected to continue increasing. According to a recent Borrell Associates forecast local online advertising will reach more than $12 billion in 2008, a 48% increase.