The Associated Press (AP) is tired of just being an observer/reporter in the NFT space.
The 176 year old company is joining the NFT bonanza by launching their own project; a marketplace.
Developed in partnership with NFT blockchain platform Xooa, the marketplace will have collectibles of both current and archived journalistic photos.
News photography has not been a big draw to NFTs. Instead, art and other caricature have been attracting the big bucks. AP’s new project seeks to find out whether there is similar value in historical and current news photos.
Photos are generally a big money maker, and Sotheby’s, the massive art broker, even has a department dedicated to this. It now adds tens of millions to their bottom-line every year, something AP would love to emulate with this latest move.
AP news and photos have won many awards over the decades, including several Pulitzers. Their photos alone have won 32 Pulitzers. This may be a big selling point as they launch their NFT collection.
The Associated Press is a non-profit organization, mainly made up of US newspapers and broadcasters. As a result, the funds generated from the NFT sale will be ploughed back into funding unbiased news coverage around the world.
The NFTs will be minted on the Polygon Blockchain, and buyers will be able to sell them on other marketplaces.
This is not AP’s first stab at NFTs. Last year, they launched a collection of 100 iconic news moments, in partnership with Binance.
They had also previously worked with digital artist Marko Stanojevic to design a one-off NFT to commemorate the 2020 US election; the first where AP used blockchain to make election calls. This NFT sold for $180,000.
