Two of the nation’s largest newspaper publishers, Gannett and McClatchy, are ending their partnership with The Associated Press, one of the world’s largest content providers for news organizations. This is a significant development in the media industry as companies continue to look at ways to cut costs.
“With this decision, we will no longer pay millions for content that serves less than 1% of our readers,” Kathy Vetter, McClatchy’s senior vice president of news and audience, said in an email reviewed by The New York Times. “In most cases we have found replacements. However, we are still working on a universal solution for state ‘wires’ content.”
Right now, the media industry is having to look at its margins and trim costs where it can. Saving money is one of the reasons Gannett and McClatchy announced they are dropping the AP.
It’s unclear how much the partnership with AP cost Gannett or McClatchy, but it is known that McClatchy was paying millions.
Another reason Gannett gave is because it will use their own network of newspapers and staff around the country to share content from within their own company. Gannett owns USA Today and more than 200 other outlets. For international news, the company signed with Reuters, another major wire.
“This decision enables us to invest further in our newsrooms and leverage our incredible USA Today network of more than 200 newsrooms across the nation as well as USA Today to reach and engage more readers, viewers and listeners,” Gannett spokesperson Lark-Marie Anton said in a statement.
Gannett and McClatchy were said to be in contract negotiations with the AP before news of their partnerships ending broke. The Associated Press issued a statement.
“We appreciate that these are difficult decisions to make and deeply understand the challenges the news industry faces,” AP spokesperson Lauren Easton told Poynter. “At the same time, this would be a disservice to news consumers across the U.S. who would no longer see fact-based journalism from the AP.”
