News aggregators and whether what they do is "stealing content" is in the blogosphere news since AFP filed suit against Google. This story from WSJ summarizes the issues, but look at the quote from Mr. Landon of Tribune Interactive. WSJ.com - A Mixed Blessing: "Tribune Interactive's Mr. Landon said he understands why newspaper editors would be frustrated by a site like Topix. 'The whole essence of newspapers is to edit the news, decide what's important and arrange the news in that way,' he said." I think the most profound question facing any news business today is whether the essence of their business is the editing and framing of news. For a newsPAPER, that might be true. For a modern news user, the editing of individual news is important but the gatekeeping isn't. AP gets this, and the British TV station I posted about. People often want stories they can trust when they want them. Did people ever really care about the way stories made their mosaic form or were the necessities of form mistaken for the interest in content?