Associated Press To Launch NFT Marketplace To Monetize Its Photojournalism

The American news wire agency Associated Press (AP) is the latest to join the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) marathon. The AP is launching its own NFT marketplace to sell its award-winning photographs, including Pulitzer Prize-winning images.

AP’s first set of NFT collections will include photojournalism from present and former photographers, along with a selection of “digitally enhanced depictions.” AP says its marketplace is set to debut on January 31.

Currently, the non-profit news service doesn’t seem to offer any sort of early access schemes. Though the landing page for NFT marketplace does have a waitlist and one can get priority access for referrals.

NFTs of exclusive photographs, ranging from the historic Vietnam War to the recent racial injustice protests, will arrive with original metadata. This data will provide collectors with the image’s “time, date, location, equipment used and technical settings.”

“NFT price points will vary,” though all proceeds will support AP journalism, the release read.

The AP pushes the #NFT marketplace closer towards legitimization. https://t.co/3YYrkoRoab

— Andrew Dolph | Photojournalist (@andrewdolph) January 10, 2022

The NFTs will be minted on the Polygon blockchain, an Ethereum L2 solution, and it is built by blockchain tech provider Xooa.

“With Xooa’s technology, we are proud to offer these tokenized pieces to a fast-growing global audience of photography NFT collectors,”

Said Dwayne Desaulniers, AP director of blockchain and data licensing.

“Pulitzer Drop” Scheduled Every Two Weeks

The AP has come up with “Pulitzer Drop” which is unique and takes place once every two weeks. Drop refers to a listed date, time, and price for a new release of NFT collections.

The Pulitzer Drop will carry Pulitzer Prize-winning images and “have increased scarcity to preserve their status,” the marketplace’s FAQs, read. These Pulitzer Drops can be accessed by AP’s most active collectors, who also take part in other drops.

According to the AP, its goal is to allow NFT collectors to buy, sell, and officially trade AP’s digital collectibles on the marketplace. Additionally, the AP will also support secondary market transactions using credit cards and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

Purchases can be made using crypto wallets such as MetaMask, with Binance and Coinbase support down the line, it added.

AP Auctioned 10 NFTs of “Iconic Photos”

In May 2021, AP auctioned 10 NFTs of “artistic representations” to celebrate its iconic photojournalism over the past 175 years.

Pascal Taillandier, a French journalist, tweeted that AP auctioned its first piece, on the NFT marketplace – OpenSea. The entire limited series was dubbed “AP ARTiFACTS: The 175 Collection.”

A representation of AP’s iconic photo of U.S. soldiers raising the American flag on Iwo Jima in 1945 is the first piece to be auctioned https://t.co/Oia7VlAcZY #newsagencies #photojournalism #NFT

— Pascal Taillandier (@ptaillandier) May 27, 2021

The digital piece was an iconic AP negative photograph of “U.S. soldiers raising the American flag on Iwo Jima in 1945.”

The AP NFT series follows its publication of the 2020 US Presidential election race calls that it minted in November 2020, on the blockchain. This was AP’s first NFT mint, an artistic representation of the election call from space. The image was sold for $185,000 (100.888 ETH) in March 2021.

NFTs have been the buzzword lately, having popularity from cartoon apes to photographs to video clips. NFT sales surged as of late, hitting $25 billion in 2021, Reuters reported.

While the start of this year might show some growth, data from market tracker DappRadar said, NFTs would be slowing down at the end of this year.