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Newspapers Weigh Alternatives to AP: But Do They Add Up?
E&P. ^ | October 09, 2008 | Joe Strupp

Posted on 10/12/2008 6:59:43 AM PDT by george76

Since the Associated Press announced its controversial rate change last year, many newspapers have started considering other content options. And things are not likely to calm down any time soon.

A handful of dailies — including several who admit their AP rates actually fell — have given notice to drop the service, editors in several states are forging content-sharing alliances, and Politico and PA SportsTicker are quickly positioning themselves to help replace the 160-year-old news cooperative in daily news pages.

"AP is going to lose newspapers, it is a question of how many," says Editor Dean Miller of the Post Register in Idaho Falls, which several months ago gave its required two years' notice that it plans to drop the news service. "My guess is most of their losses will be in medium and small markets."

Since the beginning of the year, when the backlash began against AP's rate change, more than a half-dozen dailies have given notice, including The Bakersfield Californian, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, and Washington's Yakima Herald-Republic and The Wenatchee World.

"I think the AP regional report has fallen off in quantity, and in some ways, quality,"...

"It is mostly a concern about content." At least one paper, the Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., is challenging AP's two-year-notice requirement and plans to stop using and paying for the wire service by the end of the year. "The legal point here is that we are not canceling a contract, we are declining to sign a new contract," says Editor Steve Smith, who admits a $30,000 expected savings in 2009, but says the remaining $375,000 AP bill is too high.

"More editors are feeling disenfranchised and disregarded by AP."

(Excerpt) Read more at editorandpublisher.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; US: California; US: Idaho; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: ap; associatedpress; dbm; enemedia; media; msm; oldmedia; ossociatedpress
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1 posted on 10/12/2008 6:59:43 AM PDT by george76
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To: Liz; Grampa Dave; Milhous; SunkenCiv

AP was created by newspapers


2 posted on 10/12/2008 7:01:11 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: george76

Isn’t AP a not for profit? Given their overt editorializing in favor of Obama at this point, perhaps a complaint to the IRS over their 501 status might be in order.


3 posted on 10/12/2008 7:02:46 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
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To: george76

We need a news service that TELLS THE TRUTH to replace AP.


4 posted on 10/12/2008 7:03:53 AM PDT by teletech (Friends don't let friends vote DemocRAT)
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To: george76; abb; Milhous; Liz; tubebender; SierraWasp

We will probably see the surviving fishwraps drive wooden stakes into the heart of the AP monster on a weekly if not daily basis.

These actions will not be restricted to fishwraps. We will probably see many types of non profits similiar to AP get whacked as our economy goes sideways.

If you have local tourist boards/offices which have become bloated pools of lazy liberals getting a paycheck in your community that have been financed by donations of local businesses watch how the businesses will handled these bloated do nothings. You will see actions ranging locking the doors of the tourist bureaus to evictions of the do nothings by the business community and mass firings.


5 posted on 10/12/2008 7:20:30 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( I do not want to know the type of person, who does not like Sarah !)
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To: george76
I'm not sure how much difference there would be.

Editors say using Politico copy with that of traditional news services such as McClatchy-Tribune, Hearst, or The New York Times News Service could fill the AP void.

These alternatives are more subtle and intelligent than AP, which is stuffed full of blatant and obvious liars. But they are still all leftists.

I think that that will continue to be the case as long as our universities and journalism schools and the news media themselves are all stuffed full of brainwashed leftists.

6 posted on 10/12/2008 7:24:06 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: george76
AP was created by newspapers.

AP is THE root cause of much of the left-worshiping bias media in America, because it usually provides the first blush of many a national story. (which is what sticks in our minds)

By time the truth, gets its boots on, the AP (and the public's collective mind has moved on to the next story.

Ironically, the only counter to the Democrat-loving AP is the DrudgeReport, which also provides the first blush to many a national story.

God Bless Matt Drudge, because he is the rock solid counter to the slanted AP.

7 posted on 10/12/2008 7:24:36 AM PDT by Edit35 (.)
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To: george76

Could someone who understands the news business from the inside analyze this for us?

I’d like to know if this really is the beginning of the end for the monopoly that liberals have had over the media.

I’d like to think that we can get back to reporting that is not so agenda-driven.


8 posted on 10/12/2008 7:26:18 AM PDT by webstersII
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To: Cicero

Same thought here. Politico is a little less blatant but still leftist.


9 posted on 10/12/2008 7:29:47 AM PDT by Malesherbes (es)
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To: Cicero
What about the Free Republic News Service? We already have every city in every state covered. I have no doubt we have several people on here with journalism/reporting experience to help out. We put some standards and processes in place, get press credentials and start reporting. We report the good with the bad.

Would actually be fun as well.

10 posted on 10/12/2008 7:50:12 AM PDT by paul544 (3D-Joy OH Boy!!!)
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To: george76

They should go out of business. That would be the best thing for America.


11 posted on 10/12/2008 7:56:51 AM PDT by ncfool ("Obama been lying. "Get it? Sounds Like "Osama bin Laden"?)
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To: teletech

“We need a news service that TELLS THE TRUTH to replace AP.”

Amen.

Boycott AP!


12 posted on 10/12/2008 8:16:47 AM PDT by devere
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To: Edit35

“God Bless Matt Drudge, because he is the rock solid counter to the slanted AP.”

You have a rich fantasy life. If only it were so.


13 posted on 10/12/2008 8:18:01 AM PDT by devere
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To: george76

Since the Ossociated Press announced its controversial total support for the Obama campaign after Sarah Palin was tapped for the Republican vice-presidential slot in late August, many news consumers have started ignoring and/or deriding their “content”.


14 posted on 10/12/2008 8:25:30 AM PDT by an amused spectator (The VBM: The Volkischer Beobachter Media)
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To: Edit35
AP is THE root cause of much of the left-worshiping bias media in America, because it usually provides the first blush of many a national story.

Does AP choose the left wing bias of the news, or does it merely redistribute the left wing bias of a few leading newspapers? Do they get 100 pro-Obama stories and 100 pro-Bush stories but spike the pro-Bush stories, or do its affiliates provide 100 pro-Obama stories and 1 pro-Bush story which AP distributes?

I really don't know if AP is the cause or the effect of the MSM's left wing bias.

15 posted on 10/12/2008 8:27:16 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (The $700B bail out is giving parachutes to bankers while we must keep our seat belts on and shut up.)
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To: george76
Screw the biased media! If you feel the same need you help here:

Protest the Media Thread

Protest The Media Website

The website needs freeper help posting information now!

16 posted on 10/12/2008 8:30:15 AM PDT by TruthWillWin
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To: george76
"I think the AP regional report has fallen off in quantity, and in some ways, quality,"...

Do you think???

As in honesty??

"Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved."

17 posted on 10/12/2008 8:33:54 AM PDT by sionnsar (Obama?Bye-den!|Iran Azadi|5yst3m 0wn3d-it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY)|http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com/)
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To: KarlInOhio
Does AP choose the left wing bias of the news, or does it merely redistribute the left wing bias of a few leading newspapers?

Both actually.

The Associated Press (AP) has an office-newsroom in most major metropolitan cities across America, and can thus cover the stories IT chooses with its own 'in-house' reporters.

But, like you alluded to, the AP gets most of its wire copy from local newspapers and media organizations which willingly joins the AP and pays for the right to use its wire copy.

But written into those contracts: AP has the right to change, edit, and otherwise distort any story it picks up from a local newspaper.

Likewise, the newspapers have the right to change, edit, and otherwise distort any article it takes from the AP wire service.

I've been in newsrooms many times where the editor of a local newspaper will scroll through the AP wire service until it finds a story that has the right quotes and 'distortion' .... and that local newspaper then "writes around" those quotes to make its OWN version of what happened.

Then it notes at the bottom of the newspaper story "The AP contributed to this story" or something like that.

Likewise, the 'in house' AP reporters can select from hundreds or thousands of local newspaper stories ... and will often do follow up stories on only those which fits in with the AP agenda, which is basically Democrat-good and Republican bad.

Rush Limbaugh is good at rooting out the REAL biased AP reporters, and often makes fools of them on his show.

Most casual readers just assume that the AP is down the middle, and take its stories as credible when they are anything but.

If God came down today and said "Edit35, you can make one change in the American media to bring some balance.... I would close down AP and open up an entirely new Fox News type of organization which is not obsessed at making the lib-Dems look like angels, and the GOP look like demons.

The entire political landscape would be changed within months, I am certain.

18 posted on 10/12/2008 11:27:06 AM PDT by Edit35 (.)
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To: devere
“God Bless Matt Drudge, because he is the rock solid counter to the slanted AP. ” You have a rich fantasy life. If only it were so.

------------------------------

Do you know how many times Drudge has push legitimate stories (favorable to the GOP) into the national spotlight, after the AP and other left wing organizations refused to cover them.

It is astounding how much influence Drudge has ... as evidenced by the many stories the left outlets (NYTimes, WaPost, and others) has done admitting as much.

Does Drudge occasionally do a story unfavorable to the Republicans, or President Bush, or conservatives?? Yes, certainly.

But he at least presents both sides, which is more than you can say about any of the major networks, or the major metropolitan news organizations.

19 posted on 10/12/2008 11:35:23 AM PDT by Edit35 (.)
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To: george76; AdmSmith; Berosus; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fred Nerks; ...

I wonder why, in the age of RSS feeds, emailing lists, password protected image libraries, and the like, why AP is still around. All newspapers could feed all others, and there’d be no need for the biased middleperson. Thanks geo.


20 posted on 10/12/2008 3:04:32 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______________Profile updated Saturday, October 11, 2008 !!!)
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