The Internet Content Syndication Council, whose members include Thomson Reuters and the Tribune Company, are reportedly discussing a public set of quality guidelines for online content, which could include an accreditation process for syndicated content.
The plans are in response to the growth of companies such as Demand Media and Associated Content, whose link-heavy, search-optimised articles, the council believes, make online publishing less valuable.
They specifically want to call more attention to the ability of these content generators to seed their articles through search, which in their eyes squeezes out professionally produced content.