The Associated Press is arranging a meeting with members of the blogging community to set rules for how their content is used online after an “interaction” between the AP and the Drudge Retort over usage. The AP had sent a letter to the Drudge Retort – part of the larger Drudge Report group – demanding that they take down seven stories that heavily referenced AP stories. On Saturday, they sent a follow-up letter dropping the request and apologizing for the “heavy handed letter.”

Vice president and strategy director of the AP said that they were going to rethink their policy towards bloggers. The apology was issued in response to a number of well-known bloggers criticizing the AP’s policy. The AP plans to hold a meeting with Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association in order to create standards for online use of AP stories by bloggers. The Drudge Retort links out to news sources and traces comment numbers that give people an idea of the popularity of various stories.

The AP wants to control how their information is used because they are paid by newspapers and other sources for providing news that bloggers grab for free. The print industry continues to shrink but they are trying to reach out to the online world as the AP is attempting to do.