I saw this post on NPR's online distribution strategy on the Journalism 2.0 blog a few weeks ago and have been meaning to write about it.  NPR decided to make a lot of their content database available via API to their member stations.  They syndicate content via API to various distribution endpoints, whether the sites of member stations or social networks, widgets or devices like the Chumby.  The presentation at the bottom of the page contains screenshots of a number of API implementations. 

While NPR's charter is clearly different than that of other media companies due to its unique structure and mission, their API-centric distribution strategy is smart and is something that any media company with a large library ought to have.  Having one's digital content accessible via API to authorized distributors (and disabling access when distribution agreements lapse) enables the most flexibility for different types of business relationships. 

Although I'm vastly simplifying it, you could charge for the content based on API calls, which is essentially what a lot of on-demand music streaming licenses look like (but with a lot more complexity around minimum guarantees, rev shares, etc) and subject to certain conditions that could be enforced by the API or other means (for instance the domain that the content is served off of).  Most media companies have come a long way in getting their libraries and back catalogs digitized and accessible while making sure new content and metadata fits into their digital workflow but they're not quite there in terms of "API'ifying it" for easy access, with notable exceptions like NPR and YouTube.