AP, Yahoo! near deal on content use: report

The Associated Press, a news agency, and internet firm Yahoo! are nearing a deal that will impose tighter restrictions and potentially a higher price tag on the stories of the agency distributed on Yahoo!'s news site, a media report says.

The deal is expected to be reached in the next few weeks, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Attributing to people familiar with the matter, the report said that Associated Press (AP) and Yahoo! are closing in on a deal, which could see imposition of stricter rules and a higher price tag on AP stories displayed on Yahoo!'s news site.

The deal could begin to resolve an increasingly urgent issue in the media industry that how news organisations deal with the major internet portals, which some publishers say unfairly profit from their work and cost them tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

"The AP is one of Yahoo!'s most important content partners. Yahoo! values our long-standing relationship with AP and expects it will continue for years to come," the report quoted Yahoo! as saying.

The report noted that AP has been haggling with Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! regarding the websites' distribution of AP news articles.

Meanwhile, Google is not hosting AP stories at the moment in an effort to clear the site of AP content, in case the search engine giant strikes a deal with AP before their contract ends later this month, the report added.