If parts 1 and 2 were a coincidence, then Newsbusters found that three additional newspapers dropping AP coverage, and not only for financial reasons:
The agreement that the AP has with these papers is that if the AP does not send a reporter to a local story but the paper does, the AP can then take the local paper’s story, do a rewrite, and sell it as its own. It appears that the AP is sending its reporters less and less and rewriting local paper’s stories more often causing the print outlets to cry foul.
For its part, though, the AP is emerging stronger than ever by adapting to the electronic media on the double but it all goes to highlight the ever darkening future of print media as the news industry struggles to adjust to a changing world.
Newsbusters also links to a fascinating Wall St. Journal report from June that Ohio’s eight largest newspapers are banding together together to form their own in-state co-operative, “which allows its members to sidestep the AP.”
Definitely a trend worth watching.
