What percentage of AP revenue do you think comes from print?

Heard an amazing stat this week: Less than 25 percent of the AP's revenue now comes from U.S. print and newspaper subscribers, down from about 30 percent two years ago, and well over 50 percent in the not-so-recent past (10 years+). Broadcast accounts for 10 to 15 percent. The rest is from foreign newspapers and broadcast, internet and other sources. The foreign subscribers apparently are a very big revenue source, but of course it's the internet revenue that's growing fastest.

Have to say it blew me away. I just always assumed newspapers carried the AP.

 

It'll be a notch less in a few months when Tribune kicks AP to the curb.

 

I think I heard once that what Yahoo! pays by itself is more than all the newspapers combined.

 

It doesn't change the point you're raising, but just to clarify:

The newspapers aren't subscribers to AP. They're owners of AP. AP is a cooperative, owned by its U.S. newspaper members. The newspapers are the AP. (Non-U.S. newspapers and everyone else = subscribers.)

Now, the newspapers do pay an annual fee, based on size and services used. So your question is still a good one.

 

Looking forward to the no-AP week coming up -- not!

 

I wonder what the percentage of content provided to the AP by newspapers is?

 

Agree. I always thought the same as well. To me, that number is staggeringly low.

 

AP would be in a lot more trouble if it wasn't for huge contracts with AOL, Yahoo and the like. The percentage of revenue its gotten from newspapers has dropped steadily, but the execs in AP Land are much more worried about CNN dumping them. That was a huge contract.

 

I guarantee the AP could survive a week without member pick-ups much more easily than a newspaper can survive a week without AP.

Not from a story volume perspective (which is irrelevant to the revenue-drivers at AP) but from a revenue perspective, i.e. the stories that Yahoo is actually paying to use (Yahoo gets all the stories, but if they were to have fewer member pick up stories, they are going to care a lot less than if they get fewer AP written stories).

 

At yesterday's APME Newstrain keynote in Nashville, AP's Tom Curley announced the organization will be naming 18 "groups" that are taking content without permission.

It's about time the AP (and others) started fighting back against content theft.

 

Updated to point out that the AP revealed yesterday that print now makes up only 20 percent of AP revenue:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=123&aid=193367