• by May 26, 2006

Earlier this week, Topix.net, an Internet search engine, and The Associated Press, the world's largest news-gathering organization, said they were joining forces to try to send more visitors to newspaper sites responsible for breaking stories that are picked up across the Web.

This sounds like a good plan for ailing newspapers that can use all the pickups they can get, whether via Google, syndication, or any other means. The plan is to have the AP identify stories that local papers contribute to its wire so that Topix.net can enhance links to the original source of the stories. Naturally, newspapers want credit for their stories when they're picked up by other newspaper sites, Web portals, and the AP.

If a newspaper doesn't want to participate, it can opt out. Topix, in case you don't know, is controlled by three major newspaper publishers--Gannett Co., Knight Ridder Inc., and Tribune Co.

The plan helps address a common problem for newspapers: the indexes of Internet search engines typically list identical stories appearing on multiple Web sites. It's good for Web surfers, but apparently frustrating for newspaper sites reporting stories that are rewritten and widely distributed by the AP.

Topix has its work cut out for it: Yahoo's popular news hub is the top online news destination, with 25.7 million unique U.S. visitors in April. CNN followed with 23.7 million visitors, and MSNBC lured 23.2 million, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. The AP site ranked 18th in the current events and global news category, with 6.1 million unique visitors in April; Topix ranked 29th with 2.7 million visitors, Nielsen said.