CNN Looks To Take On The Associated Press

from the here-comes-competition dept

Wed, Oct 29th 2008 5:48pm — Mike Masnick

With the Associated Press bizarrely focusing on competing with its own members, it hasn't been much of a surprise at all that those member newspapers have been leaving in droves. While the AP recently announced that it was going to rethink its strategy, it appears that plenty of other news operations see the AP's self-destructive decisions as an opportunity. We already noted in that earlier story that some newspapers were banding together directly to share content, and now CNN is announcing its own wire service that newspapers can tap into. Clearly, newspapers value being able to get content from other sources (especially for international coverage), and it seems that news operations like CNN see the AP's problems as a big opportunity.

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Filed Under: competition, newspapers, wire services
Companies: associated press, cnn

13 Comments

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Erv Server, 29 Oct 2008 @ 6:21pm

AP
maybe if AP spent less time trying to get Obama elected they could focus on saving themselves
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- Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2008 @ 6:36pm
  
  Re: AP
  and another case of cranial posterior inversion
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  - Nobody, 29 Oct 2008 @ 6:47pm
    
    Re: Re: AP
    Cranial Posterior Inversion... Wait a minute! I think that was a shot!
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- commonsense247, 29 Oct 2008 @ 8:52pm
  
  Re: AP
  yes, some of their writers have been incredibly biased in their coverage of this election. i used to respect the AP, but no more.
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NewyorkerstuckinLA, 29 Oct 2008 @ 8:10pm

CNN vs. OBAMA
Wow i never thuaght i would see the day, the phillies have won the world series. Is that a good thing for the demacratic party or is it a good thing for the media?
I find it very hard to get real information from news agencies.
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- Serendipityguy, 29 Oct 2008 @ 11:07pm
  
  Re: CNN vs. OBAMA
  Amen/ nuf said & Well put!
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Fergie, 29 Oct 2008 @ 10:19pm

Re: AP
Good line A.C. never heard that one!``Cranial posterior inversion``, like ``Seducing Fido`` which I believe I also gather from this site some time ago!
But I agree they have bitten themselves in the butt! Not a great way to get along with the neighbours, as it were!
As a Cunnuck, I don't really care who gets in! Yes it effects the whole world, most Americans think anyways, I do not go with that idea as we all (countries), make our own mistakes and must live with them! As do you all!
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Oct 2008 @ 4:42am

The age of the INFO BABE
Why would they need the AP? News agencies like CNN, read celebrity press releases, get the municipal feed of car chases or have political pundits argue with each about public poll numbers. This is what CNN and the other "news" agencies do now, what do they need the AP or real reporters for? It is amazing to watch BBC once in a while, just for the nostalgic value of remembering what news was like when I was a little kid.
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 Oct 2008 @ 8:12am
  
  Re: The age of the INFO BABE
  "It is amazing to watch BBC once in a while, just for the nostalgic value of remembering what news was like when I was a little kid."
  
  Completely leftist news?? Yea OK, "real reporters" LOL
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SpinLock, 30 Oct 2008 @ 9:25am

The AP
I used to work there. Each year the president did an 'all hands' broadcast to summarize the state of the company, and inevitably there was a presentation on how we were going to 'monetize our content'. They sold off one of the few advertising-related money makers they had circa 2003, and decided that continuing to charge membership fees was the way to go. Time seems to be proving them wrong. But this is not surprising; senior management at that place is a battleground of political in-fighting by players who, by and large, don't 'get' the Internet. In fact, I don't think they've achieved even the 'series of tubes' level of understanding.
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Oct 2008 @ 12:41pm

It's all bias
Great go from one bias company to another. Remember the weapons of mass destruction CNN was promoting for Bush's war?

No Thanks. I'll look else where for my news.
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whowantstoknow?, 9 Nov 2008 @ 8:07am

AP RIP ASAP
The associated press has become nothing more than a conservative (probably Republican Owned) blog. I thought it was hilarious where someone above said the AP was "focused on getting Obama elected." The AP has done nothing but slant its "news"casts to either attack or ignore Obama and any other person or party that isn't republican. Just look at the AP headlines on Yahoo today -- or any day for that matter. Case in point.
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kamm, 2 Dec 2008 @ 8:19am

AP is worthless
AP is a worthless piece of crap, full of completely fuckin clueless, arrogant amateurs...
I remember when only couple of years ago they ran some junk piece about Dracula in the Medieval Age Transylvania and the author kept talking about Romania in the Medieval Age - which in fact didn't even exist until late 19th century, let alone that Transylvania was part of Kingdom of Hungary/Austro-Hungarian Monarchy until the end of WWI...

As someone with relevant EU roots I was first baffled by such gross errors, unscrupulous rewriting of European history then I noticed it was written by someone from Bukarest, Romania and it became even more ridiculous: it's one thing that apparently Ceausescu's alternative history is still alive but how on Earth did it make to the front pages of AP???

It DID speak volumes about the sheer level of amateurism, the complete lack of the even most basic editorial standards, let alone journalistic integrity and I never visited their site again, always skip every AP link ever since.

If you add it that AP's head honcho was offered a post by McCain you can sum up AP pretty shortly: crooked, clueless, incompetent, amateur, worthless PoC.
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