AP Launches National Tour to Explain New Fee Structure

By: Joe Strupp Associated Press officials are launching what amounts to a national tour to explain the new controversial rate structure that two groups of editors recently wrote to complain about.

James Kennedy, AP vice president for strategic planning, said the tour will involve bureau chiefs and regional vice presidents meeting with member newspapers to explain the rate structure that includes a new a la carte system. He said it was planned prior to the recent uproar, but will help provide details of the new approach.

"Every [AP] member in one way shape or form will be communicated with either at the newspaper or in a group setting," Kennedy said Friday, a day after the AP Board voted to implement the plan. "We are going to go basically door-to-door to discuss the pricing plan with each member to discuss the rates."

The tour is expected to last at least several months, probably to mid-June, AP officials said. [A previous version of this story indicated that the tour would take place for only a few weeks, based on initial information from AP, which has since changed its estimated time frame.]

"We have a goal of getting this message out as soon as possible," he told E&P.

Kennedy also stressed that the new rate structure, which AP officials contend will keep most rates even, and actually provide some $6 million in reductions for many, is needed. He says the recent editor demands for further rate cuts are impossible at a time when the news cooperative is investing in new technology and gearing up to cover both the presidential election and the Summer Olympics.

"In an election year and an Olympic year, we have very little margin for error in the budget," he said. Kennedy added that the news organization has spent $40 million during the past four years in digital infrastructure investments, with another $10 million to $15 million per year likely for at least the next two years.

He also says at least 372 jobs have been cut, mostly through attrition, in the past five years. "We've done a great deal of restructuring ourselves, removing bodies and moving people around to improve coverage," he added.

Kennedy's comments are in reaction to opposition from a group of editors to the new rate structure plan, which was first announced last year.

Under the current AP rate system, each paper is sold a package of stories created by AP based on the paper's location and size. That package usually includes breaking news, sports, business and other national, international and regional news relevant to the market, including its state AP wire.

With the new structure, AP member newspapers would receive all breaking news worldwide as a core product, including those from other state wires, as well as breaking sports, business and entertainment stories.

Five other non-breaking news categories of sports, entertainment, business, lifestyle and analysis would be available at an additional cost through a premium plan, or on an a la carte basis. The a la carte items also could be purchased without buying the core breaking news stories.

Some newspapers, such as The Post Register in Idaho Falls, Idaho, have welcomed the new approach.

"While I don?t agree with every decision the AP has made over the past few years, the decision to adopt this new fee structure is a very positive move and a good first step," Roger Plothow, the Post Register publisher wrote to E&P in an e-mail. But, he added, "much more needs to be done, particularly in the way the AP brings its membership into its decision-making process."

Two groups of editors, meanwhile, have written complaint letters to the AP leadership in recent months, demanding a further fee reduction.

The most recent editors' letter, sent Jan. 2, 2008, was from a group of eight newsroom leaders at major newspapers that included: Martin Baron of the Globe, Karin Winner of the Union-Tribune; David Shribman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Bill Marimow of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Nancy Barnes of the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis; Susan Goldberg of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland; Ken Brusic of the Orange County Register; and Harry Whitin of the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette.

Addressed to AP President Tom Curley and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, it took issue with the AP rates and the recent new structure plan.

That letter followed a previous, separate letter sent Dec. 21, 2007, by a group of editors and publishers from six Ohio newspapers. It contended both rates and news practices are unacceptable to them.

The Ohio letter was signed by editors Bruce Winges of the Akron Beacon-Journal, Tom Callinan of the Cincinnati Enquirer; Susan Goldberg of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland; Marrison of the Dispatch; Ron Royhab of The Blade in Toledo; and Todd Franko of the Vindicator in Youngstown. Publishers from each paper also signed the letter, except for the Vindicator, which offered general manager Mark Brown's name.

AP CEO Tom Curley and AP Board Chairman William Dean Singleton wrote back on Jan. 4 to Baron and each of the editors who co-signed with him, saying, "We are painfully aware how difficult these times are for traditional media, especially newspapers.''

The letter also said the news cooperative "faces digital era challenges as great as any member?As a result, the board's guiding principle has been to insist AP attain a sustainable funding model.''

A review of the 22-member AP Board finds that at least three of the board members are from companies that own papers whose editors have signed one of the letters.

Among those editors are Martin Baron of the Globe and Harry Whitin of the Telegram & Gazette, both of which are owned by The New York Times Company. Mary Jacobus?, one of the AP board members, is president and chief operating officer of the Times' Regional Media Group. ??

Although Baron has declined to comment on the letter, Whitin said he had mentioned his concerns about AP to Jacobus, but not for several years. "I told her at that time that I was unhappy with the direction AP was taking," Whitin recalls. "She said she knew the AP was trying to operate as efficiently as it could."

Jacobus did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

A list of AP board members can be found at:

http://www.ap.org/pages/about/board.html