Some newspapers are cancelling AP services.

madfloridian

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Tue Aug-26-08 11:03 PM
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Some newspapers are cancelling AP services.

I ran across this diary at Daily Kos. I found it interesting, that for whatever reasons...many papers are cancelling the news services of the Associated Press.

I would like to think it is their new editorializing policies, that it was all the communications the netroots have had. But I have no clue.

Newspapers cancel AP Services

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune is the latest paper to cancel AP service. In Washington, The Spokesman Review of Spokane canceled around the same time that The Bakersfield Californian cut ties. Several smaller newspapers have joined in. In Ohio, eight of the top newspapers, including The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Columbus Dispatch, The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Toledo Blade, decided to create their own network, the Ohio News Organization. Now they share local news without submitting it to the AP.

The reason is that with multiple 24-hour news networks, countless news sites online, and even news content on cell phones, consumers can access news from almost anywhere for free. Commoditized news like what the AP offers doesn't add much value to a newspaper while costing newspapers hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars a year. Even after newspapers demanded the Associated Press reduce its fees next year, that cut of approximately 10% still makes the AP a very large budget item for progressively smaller newspaper budgets.

The Associated Press's response to the changing media landscape has been less than impressive. Most famously, it was ridiculed for trying to charge bloggers for using five-word excerpts at up to $2.50 a word. With the increasing threat of mass newspaper cancellation, it's easy to understand why the AP has been so reactive and heavy-handed lately. While Ron Fournier's predecessor worries, "I just hope he doesn't destroy it", the slow death of the AP may continue regardless.

They had begun the practice of editorializing and opinionizing under the leadership of Kathleen Carroll and Ron Fournier...and much of it had a rightward tilt.

Another opinionizer at the AP

This is subtly done by Liz Sidoti of the AP. She starts her piece on Biden, the attack person, as though it will be fair and impartial. But check on down in the article...just a sentence here and there. It is like they are becoming an opinion source instead of news.

Here is some of what she wrote about Joe Biden.

Biden begins by biting.

He jabbed at McCain, a Vietnam prisoner of war who is arguably the county's most vocal supporter of the U.S. mission in Iraq, next to Bush. Said Biden: "These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader. A leader who can deliver."

that the Republican can't change the country when he offers more of the same, though he left out details and cherry-picked quotes as he sought to make his case.

Cherry-picked, just as the AP has been doing.

More about it.

AP has a Fournier problem

Ron Fournier says he regards Sandy Johnson, his predecessor as head of The Associated Press’s Washington bureau, as “a mentor.” Johnson, though, regards Fournier, who replaced her in a hard-feelings shake-up in May, as a threat to one of the most influential institutions in American journalism.

..." Fournier is a main engine in a high-stakes experiment at the 162-year old wire to move from its signature neutral and detached tone to an aggressive, plain-spoken style of writing that Fournier often describes as “cutting through the clutter.”

In the stories the new boss is encouraging, first-person writing and emotive language are okay."

Who knows. The trend to cancel their services probably started before we as activists griped. But it is nice to think we made a difference.