The Associated Press is taking a hard line against aggregator sites that mooch off of their original content. Meanwhile, hip-hop magazine XXL and the New York Times are taking different, but equally desperate, measures to survive.
• The Associated Press and its member newspapers say they will challenge “fair use” laws by taking action against aggregator sites that use their reporting without legal permission. “We can no longer stand by and watch others walk off with our work under misguided legal theories,” Dean Singleton, chairman of the group, said today. “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore.” Wait: Was it okay for us to use that quote? [Google]
• The New York Times Company is playing dirty and has threatened to close the Boston Globe unless labor unions agree to save $20 million for the company via pay cuts and the cessation of pension contributions. [NYT]
• The parent company of the Dallas Morning News, A.H. Belo Corp., said it would lay off 500 employees across all of its properties today and tomorrow. The company also owns the Providence Journal and several smaller newspapers and websites. [Austin-American Statesman]
• WebMediaBrands, the company formally known as Jupiter Media, has closed its two bimonthly design magazines, Dynamic Graphics+Create and Step Inside Design, with plans to keep the sites intact. [Folio]
• In other job-losing news, Roger Friedman, an entertainment columnist for FoxNews.com, got “terminated” for posting a mini-review of the illegally leaked X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a 20th Century Fox film featuring a somewhat naked Hugh Jackman. [NYT]
• Advertisers have reached a new low. In order to increase their own ad sales, hip-hop mag XXL is predicting rival magazine Giant’s demise in a memo sent out to media-planning agency Mindshare. [Gawker]
