Online Journalism News

AP to tag all news stories with Media Standards Trust's metadata format

The Media Standards Trust (MST) has partnered with the Associated Press (AP) to launch a new 'microformat' for metadata in news stories.

The proposed 'hNews' system would attach information about the author of the story, where it was published and where it was written, to every news story, a press release from the MST said.

The subject matter of the story, where it was written, any usage rights associated with it and any news principles it adheres to would also be covered.

The microformat is being trialled on all AP news stories. The AP has also launched an AP Developer API in beta, making news stories in the new microformat available to third parties.

The new system is 'intended to become a standard to be used by anyone producing news content' and is therefore open source, the release said. It is also being trialled by the website openDemocracy.net.

"We think this news format extends microformat efforts to date, by applying the basic principles of simplicity, reuse and semantic presentation specifically for news content," said Todd Martin, AP vice president of Technology Development, in the release.

'Signposting online news' benefits both news organisations and the public, added Martin Moore, MST director, in the release.

The MST has launched a website, Value Added News, to discuss the proposed microformat, its development and includes an example of the metadata in action.

The project has been part-funded by a Knight News Challenge Award, which the MST won in 2008.

Today the MST is holding its Newsinnovation London event. See our Editors' blog post for more information about the event.

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associated press | media standards trust | metadata | newsinnovation |

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