By: Joe Strupp In the wake of the controversy over a new Associated Press rate structure, which has prompted a small outcry from two groups of editors who want lower rates, the New York Daily News has revealed it canceled its AP service a year ago.
The Daily News confirmed Monday that it advised AP more than a year ago that it would no longer be a member of the news cooperative. Under AP policy, members must give two years notice of plans to drop the service, meaning the Daily News will no longer receive AP core services in early 2009.
?Over a year ago, the Daily News gave notice to the AP that we were terminating our membership agreement and access to their services," Daily News spokeswoman Jennifer Mauer wrote in a statement to E&P. "We will continue to explore ways that we can work together in the future, including a recently signed agreement to receive the AP?s Election coverage."
Ed Fay, Daily News vice president of editorial administration, said the decision to drop AP was in protest of the two-year termination policy. "It is all about term with us," he said. "We hope that over the next several months we can negotiate to maintain our relationship."
Fay said the newspaper had already cancelled its sports statistics and business stocks service but was continuing to run stocks under a temporary extension agreement.
Mauer added that "in a changing media world, it is essential that the Daily News explore new sources of information that relate to our editorial needs for both print and web.?
Word of the termination comes just days after revelations that a dispute had erupted over a new AP rate structure plan, which will be implemented in 2009 and has sparked an outcry from two groups of editors who have written to complain about AP rates in recent months. Despite those complaints, the AP Board last week formally approved the new structure that will expand breaking news offerings to core members, but put some other content on an a la carte service.
AP officials have said the new structure will likely mean little change in costs for most newspapers, claiming about $6 million in savings will be seen by newspapers overall.
AP Regional Vice President Linda Stowell, whose clients include the Daily News, said that paper's termination notice is not related to the rate structure changes. "It is about contract terms. They want certain contract lengths and we are working on it with them," she said. "It is not about price or service or content."
Stowell added that termination notices, while not common, often end with a member returning to the cooperative. "We get notices of cancellation from members, they get resolved and that is what we expect to happen here."
One ironic twist, the Daily News and AP headquarters are located in the same New York City building on Manhattan's west side.
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