spokane: we want out -- now!

Who blinks first? AP or the papers?

 

the money goes back into the company's pocket.

ok, the publisher keeps his/her 10 percent cut for coming in under budget for the year.

 

Newhouse Alabama: we want out -- sort of!

A former co-worker who works for one of the Newhouse Alabama papers says, beginning today, Mobile, Birmingham and Huntsville are receiving this from the Associated Press:

Member Choice Limited
A new, extremely abbreviated breaking news service call AP Member Choice Limited will be available starting in 2010 to AP member newspapers.
Here is a description of the service:
Member Choice Limited is a very tight selection of top breaking news from U.S., world, sports, business, entertainment – plus home state wire:
• Top Breaking News: At least four top general news stories
• National: Up to 15 stories per day
• International: Up to five stories daily
• Business: Up to five stories daily, plus Wall Street wrap-up
• Sports: Up to three stories daily. Standings and scores on major pro sports. Scores only on major college games.
• Entertainment: One per day, with three People items
• Strange News: Two stories

He says all three papers will keep getting the complete Sports wire. Mobile's also keeping the full Business wire, Huntsville's keeping full Features wire. He wasn't sure what the News was up to.

This is an effort to push shared content between the three papers, he says.

This is going to be interesting to watch. Any ideas how much savings this will result in?

 

It will be interesting to see if the "AP Lite" plan catches on.

And to update the original thread, from what I've seen, the Spokane Spokesman-Review still uses AP stories, photos, etc.

 

That will be proven a lie.

 

Forget UNDER budget. This is what publishers will do to MAKE their reduced budgets. No one will ever see that 400K again. Hire stringers to do deskwork? Laughable. They'll just dump it on the few remaining deskers, because their workload is now reduced because of less wire copy.

 

Photo-wise for college basketball teams on the road -- why not just work a trade with the the home team paper?

 

I'm torn about the value of agate.

I'm sure the old fogey subscribers probably still look at it.

But does anybody else really do the same?

 

Perhaps not.

However, what I'd be worried about is the number of complaints we'd get if it weren't there.

It's like "oh it's there." Don't bother to read it, whatever.

Next day it's gone and it's like "what the fuck? Where is it?!"

Readers aren't as dumb as some of us make them out to be. They know we're trying to sell them a bill of goods under the guise of doing more with less.

They don't want to drink the Kool-Aid anymore.

 

Re: Newhouse Alabama: we want out -- sort of!

It is going to save them the gas money to deliver a paper to my house if the cut the newshole much further.

 

I've been thinking the same thing too, since we're a PM'er and unless they're incredibly isolated (or don't have cable), I don't think there are that many readers buying us for that Royals-Mariners box. We're switching over to AP Lite sometime this week, and I'm told we'll still have coverage of state teams and, if the demo means anything, I think we'll still have full agate. If not, we'll make do with what we have and either poll the audience and see if they want full boxes, or just wait until someone complains.

 

Exactly. I've heard from so many pepole that the newspaper isn't worth buying anymore because the newshole has shrunk so much. Publishers can blame it on the arrival of social media, etc., all they want. The truth is they killed the paper by making it so horrible and small that nobody needs to read it anymore.
The cutting back on space has ruined the industry. Some like to read the scores and college box scores and pro box scores on Sunday. Most papers have no room for the scores and national box scores and results. Some like high school sports. High school sports coverage has been reduced 50 percent at my shop. Some like national news. Briefs packages have been reduced to nothing. There used to be space to run some good national columns, especially on Sunday.
We no longer run good stories, good reads from the wire services run at our shop anymore. There's no space. Don't underestimate the value of some good national columns for readers who like to look at them on a slow Sunday morning. This all adds up when it is taken away.
Readers are not drinking the Kool Aid. They have bailed and NOT for the reasons the think tankers have suggested. The product sucks now. Case closed.