By: Joe Strupp A national tour by Associated Press officials, aimed at explaining a new controversial rate structure to members -- including some editors who have spoken out publicly against the plan -- will actually take place over several months, not a few weeks as previously indicated.
AP officials plan to meet with every member in either one-on-one meetings or through group events, James Kennedy, AP vice president for strategic planning, said last week. He initially suggested the tour could wrap-up by the annual AP meeting in April. But officials said Monday the effort would likely last through mid-summer.
The tour is an effort to explain parts of a new rate structure set to be implemented in 2009 that would offer a broader breaking news core service, but different a la carte plans. Since its announcement last year, two groups of editors have written to complain that rates need to be reduced more than the new plan would provide.
Last week, David Ledford, president of the Associated Press Managing Editors and executive editor of The News Journal in Wilmington, Del., addressed the dispute with a letter posted on the APME Web site that appears to sympathize with the editors' complaints.
His letter said, in part, "Twenty of the 22 members of AP's Board of Directors are senior executives of newspaper companies who know well the staggering losses newsrooms across the country have felt in the past four years. Still, it isn't surprising that editors want financial relief from AP.
"The best editors among America's 1,500 newsrooms have done everything possible to keep watchdog journalism alive while losing positions and restructuring to be competitive in the digital world," he added. "It was inevitable that some editors would seize on the notion that they could save a job or two by reducing their AP assessments."
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