CNHI to cut AP

Screw AP, they don't even follow their own style!

 

Same thing here. They cut out buying reporters notebooks and trash can liners for us earlier this year (they recently started purchasing these two items again) because we were behind projection, even though we were turning a profit, just not as big as they wanted out of our division.

 

I would think CNHI's leverage is Zilch. Only 108 daily papers.

 

"That'll learn ya!"

And of course, when you move, you get the loyalty lecture.

 

so i wonder if this means the cnhi paper that puts out a weekly that competes with a weekly we put out will quit running a.p. stories on their front page.

 

About $10.50 a month.

 

CNHI could get a lower assessment from AP through reductions in the services its papers get. No way AP is just going to slash the assessment. Every other publisher would be lining up, saying "Me, too." and that would be the end of AP. Hard to believe CNHI leaders don't know that, even though at the top there's not much newspaper experience.

 

It's suicide for CNHI to do this.

We can sit here and say that people will go to the Web to get their national news and that we have this monopoly on the local market. But telling customers to go to hell and look for their information elsewhere is suicide.

We've had small papers in our area cut their AP service to the bare bones and be "all local." All have lost circulation, and one is in danger of going out of business or become a weekly or twice-weekly.

Our sports section, especially during the prep seasons, is mostly local. But cut the box scores on our baseball page, and people will howl. Cut NASCAR coverage, and they'll really howl.

Yes, people in our circulation area want to read about the local high schools. But they also want to read about the colleges in the state; the Cubs, Cardinals and White Sox (and yes, even the Royals, since our minor league team is an affiliate); and the Bears, Rams, Packers, Vikings and Chiefs during the football season. And God help us if we didn't have the NASCAR results in the day after the race.

We cover the University of Iowa with beat writers for football and basketball. We use AP for Iowa State because of the driving distance and the time. Our Cyclone fans don't care who's writing it, so long as it's in there. Cut AP, and we're hiring a stringer who could be reliable, but if he/she isn't reliable, then it becomes a problem.

Do I complain about AP at times? Absolutely, I think the service can be better for what we pay for it. Could I do without it? Absolutely not.

 

God, I hope Gannett higher-ups don't read this.

Oh wait. This is in "Journalism topics only."

Nevermind.

 

I was told that CNHI powers-that-be feel the AP is overcharging the chain about $1 million.
The AP costs CNHI about $6 million. CNHI feels that those services should cost about $5 million.

Not saying I think its right or wrong. Those are just the figures I'm getting.

 

I feel gas should cost me $1.00 a gallon. : :

 

I really don't believe this, it's too wacky. AP is a cooperative, run by its members, it's not some independent company that can be bullied like Wal-Mart shaking down a supplier. It's not like Gannett and McClatchy and Newhouse and the NYT Co. are gonna quake in their shoes and say, "Ohhhhh, big bad CNHI is threatening to pull out, better give them what they want." They're gonna say, "We all share in the cost of this according to circulation size and services needed, AP is non-profit. It's not like we're gonna miss you. See ya."