Oct 16 2008
Associated Press: Is It The Beginning Of The End
My regular readers know I have permanently banned AP from my blog. Seems I am not alone. The Tribune Company is the latest that has announced that notice has been given to the AP that they will be canceling their subscription. Fabulous and Kudos!
Tribune Spokesman Gary Weitman did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday as he is traveling. The notice comes less than a year after Sam Zell, an AP board member, took control of Tribune.
Tribune daily papers besids the flagship in Chicago affected include The Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; The Orlando Sentinel; Red Eye of Chicago; the Hartford Courant; The Baltimore Sun; The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa.; and The Daily Press of Newport News, Va.
“I think many editors are concerned about the new financial rate model that AP has rolled out,” Earl Maucker, editor of the Sun Sentinel, said about the notice. “It is a natural approach for us to take a hard look at that. Are there other alternatives out there that would provide the depth and breadth of coverage we need?”
In recent months, other non-Tribune papers have also given the required two-year’s notice to drop AP. Those include: The Star Tribune of Minneapolis, The Bakersfield Californian, The Post Register of Idaho Falls, and The Yakima Herald-Republic and Wenatchee World, both of Washington.
The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., is trying to cut ties without the required two-year notice, planning to discontinue AP content at the end of 2008. At least one newspaper, The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., tested the approach by publishing an entire newspaper for one day last month without AP content. So far, that paper has not given notice to cut the service.
Maucker said publishing without AP would be difficult, but not impossible: “We would have to take a look at what other options might be available.”
The recent decisions to drop AP service follow the planned AP rate structure change, which was announced in 2007 and takes effect in 2009. The rate change initially prompted complaints from numerous newspapers, including two groups of editors who wrote angry letters to AP to complain in late 2007 and early 2008.
