More Papers to Pull Out of AP Arrangement
We hear now that there is another group of regional papers, in Ohio, who are joining forces to share content and kick the Associated Press out of the party. THANK GOODNESS, newspaper publishers are seeing the light. We’ve suggested that newspapers do this a long time ago. The Associated Press, in my mind, is just a hyped up newspaper aggregator, with some editorial services. There is nothing in their suite of offerings that newspapers couldn’t cover themselves, through simple partnership with each other.
The Associated Press is not absolved to the issues newspapers have found themselves in and increasing rates, as they last year, definitely sent the wrong message. The AP was clearly suffering from the inflated ego syndrome that newspapers suffered from, when they thought their pure play online competitors would never be able to withstand. Seems like only yesterday….
I am going to give the Associated Press the same advice I give to traditional publishers and journalists; look at the entire content interaction cycle (readers, customers, advertiser, competitors) when building strategies. Never get comfortable and think that your position is ‘forever secure’.
Now to give AP some credit, they have recently announced some planned changes to their structure, which will take effect in 2010. Even with this gesture however, I still think that the Associated Press, took excessively long to change their member plans to match the climate of their client base. The other committed change for 2010, based on member feedback (really complaints) is that instead of it taking you two years to cancel your subscription, you will soon be able to provide just one-year’s notice to cancel.
