Local newspaper drops AP
I’ll put my cards on the table – I’m not sure how we’re going to pull this off. While the AP’s value to us has been severely diminished over the years, it still does provide a handful of services that we haven’t been able to find elsewhere – yet.
Post Register Publisher Roger Plothow is bold in that statement, and I think correct in his prediction. I wish he was as firm one of the following sentences:
More likely, we’ll use that time to become essentially 100 percent local, which is probably where we’re headed eventually anyway.
The “likely … probably … eventually” sounds pretty week. The plan for their former AP budget could also be firmed up.
For now, the $114,000 assessment for 2009 represents the worst value for anything we purchase, since we use so little of what we’re paying for. I admit that I look at that money and think of all the other things we could do with it – add reporters, enhance our web site, maybe even give a raise or two to deserving under-paid employees.
That money could also go toward training the existing employees to gather news more effectively in photo, video, audio, and the written word, and buy the equipment for such purposes. A fair chunk of that will also need to go toward hiring intelligent Web professionals who can help get that new content to their consumers.
Post Register has certainly made a bold move, but it can pay off big-time if they do it right.
