The Guardian has recently launched a plugin enabling bloggers to re-publish articles on their own blogs. Here is why this is clearly a win-win situation.

There are those who think that in the digital age the newspaper industry can only survive by charging for its content and maximising their advertising footprint (read: Rupert Murdoch), and there are those who try to think beyond this assumption.

When it comes to digital strategy, the Guardian has so far shown to be the most forward thinking and experimental newspaper globally. Recently, it has introduced a plugin that allows Wordpress based blogs to post content directly from The Guardian website’s onto the blog.

The catch? Bloggers must publish the article in full without applying any modifications, and along with the content comes the newspaper’s advertisements. Whatever you may think, it’s a win-win situation: The Guardian doesn’t lose any profit and is actually able to monitise through the API, whilst publishers get free online news content from one of the world’s best newspapers.

It is certainly an interesting and timely move. Recently, Associated Press sent a legal threat to ColoradoPols.com – a blog covering politics in Colorado, USA - for having re-published its content without permission or remuneration. The case has caused shock in the media and in the blogging community.

This syndication tool is part of the newspaper’s Open Platform Program led by their very own Wizard of Oz, Matt McAlister, lead developer and main architect of The Guardian’s online strategy.

In an interview with GigaOm, Matt explained the rationale behind the Guardian’s online experiments:

At a time when newspapers like The Times of London and the Sunday Times are implementing paywalls [...] and other newspaper, such as the New York Times, are working on their own pay restrictions, The Guardian’s move toward creating an open platform is unusual. But despite the newspaper’s losses, Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger has said that an open strategy is the key to the newspaper’s future.

For more info, we heartily recommend “The Open Strategy: Or how I stopped worrying about my website and learned to love the Internet” by the aforementioned online whiz.

Despite the best journalistic efforts at being unbiased, in this case we can’t help but give a big thumbs up to this initiative.

Guardian 1 : Competitors 0.

__

Credits Photo CC Flickr : Everydaylifemodern.

Initially published on OWNI july 15th 2010