That appears to be the case, as Philipp has learned. The deal appears to be a pay per click deal (these are not unusual between high traffic sites and major news services like AP and Reuters), but it does mark a departure for the service, and heralds an actual business model is coming. It short it augurs the day when Google (finally) starts making money of its highly trafficked News site by selling ads against it. From Philipp’s site, Google’s response:
Google has always believed that content providers and publishers should be fairly compensated for their work so they can continue producing high quality information. We are always working on new ways to help users find the information they are looking for, and our business agreement with the Associated Press is one example of that.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when “fairly compensated for their work” is debated…