Newspapers Protest FIFA’s World Cup Digital Photo Limits

It’s not just stealing readers, marketshare and advertising revenue that online and mobile news services are taking from papers… now they’re taking the actual news as well. “FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, is banning digital images from appearing on newspaper websites and other electronic media until one hour after matches finish during next year’s World Cup in Germany…The publication embargo comes as mobile phone and online services increasingly are willing to pay for exclusive content, especially sports-related, to build their customer bases.”
Naturally, newspapers who have paid good money to be able to report on the world’s second-biggest sporting event are annoyed that they won’t be able to put up images on their websites straight away…
“This is a severe curb on the freedom of editors to inform their readers,” said Timothy Balding, head of the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers (WAN), which represents about 18,000 newspapers through dozens of global trade groups. “Editors the world over will be simply unable to provide readers with the information they have come to expect in the instant-news epoch,” he added.
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