175-Year-Old News Cooperative the Associated Press Plans to Launch NFT Marketplace

On January 10, 2022, the Associated Press (AP), the American non-profit news cooperative founded in 1846, has announced the news agency is launching a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. The AP NFT market was built by the distributed ledger technology provider Xooa and on top of the Polygon blockchain network.

The 175-year-old news cooperative the Associated Press revealed that the organization is launching an NFT marketplace using the Polygon blockchain network. According to the AP announcement, the NFT market built by Xooa will allow NFT collectors to collect the news agency’s iconic photojournalism. AP’s newly crafted Polygon-based NFT market will launch on January 31, 2022.

Dwayne Desaulniers, AP director of blockchain and data licensing, explained that the non-profit news cooperative is thrilled to showcase the organization’s Pulitzer Prize-winning images from current and former AP photojournalists. “Each NFT will include a rich set of original metadata offering collectors awareness of the time, date, location, equipment, and technical settings used for the shot,” the AP press release notes.

“For 175 years AP’s photographers have recorded the world’s biggest stories through gripping and poignant images that continue to resonate today,” Desaulniers said in a statement on Monday. “With Xooa’s technology, we are proud to offer these tokenized pieces to a fast-growing global audience of photography NFT collectors.”

While the initial launch will begin on the last day of January, AP says that the collection will be released over a period of weeks, and “NFT price points will vary.” Proceeds from the NFT sales will go back into funding “factual, unbiased AP journalism.” According to the AP, owners of the AP NFT images can also sell them on secondary markets after the initial sale. AP also details that people can purchase the NFTs with crypto or credit cards.

The AP announcement further highlights that the Polygon blockchain is more “environmentally friendly” than other blockchain networks. “In this marketplace deployment, emphasis has been placed on accessibility for all types of collectors to empower them to join a community that shares their interest in stunning photography,” Zach Danker-Feldman, Xooa’s head of marketplaces said on Monday.

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