[...] — and primacy — of its massive bread-and-butter (and moneymaking) content operation. As we’ve seen, independent AP initiatives haven’t always met with the approval of individual AP members [...]

[...] has been talk about newspapers and high school athletic associations sharing content and resources. Many news organizations that once saw themselves as bitter rivals — now facing enormous financial challenges — [...]

[...] Ron Royhab: Newspapers, like kindergartners, need to share | Nieman Journalism Lab "The Toledo Blade has gotten notice in the past year for being one of the eight founding members of the Ohio News Organization, a collaborative in which the state’s major papers freely share their stories (and now their photos and graphics) with one another. All the Ohio papers have seen major cutbacks in recent years — The Blade’s newsroom staff is about half the size it was five years ago — and their willingness to beat swords into plowshares has been a model for other cooperatives around the country among papers with declining resources. [...]

[...] 5:01 pm · Filed under Freelance, Publishing, The news biz, Unfettered stupidity, smartnews AP’s feelin’ the hate. And then we were talking about the high cost of the Associated Press and we were all upset. The [...]

[...] the comments on one of our posts, I heard about one paper that had already cut AP entirely out of its pages: The Norwalk Reflector, [...]

1. What are the other sources of revenue for the AP aside from subscriptions from newspapers.

2. Does the following sound right to anyone who is full time in the game? (I’m just a semi-retired blogger so it’s hard to tell if I’m just drinking my own kool-aid)

I’ve always believed the real value of a great newspaper is the day to day editing and the paper distribution system within a defined physical space. Add to that local beat blogging in defined space and the picture is complete.

Once the papers share instead of compete on content, they can focus limited resources on writing, editing and becoming both the best domain experts on their communities and learning to speak the specific authentic language of their users.

With the occasional Pulitzer Prize, when the right story meets the right reporter at the right time.

On the business side, my hypothesis is that local business print ads should be an easy sell at the right price, but at present the cost of sales is too high and too slow and makes the selling price of ads too high for the market.

Any reactions- pro or con – would be much appreciated.

And, as you point out, now papers can get their competitors news through AP — just for a high cost.

I see a lot of potential for this sharing in features departments. I cover parenting, and most of what I write about is relevant to any parent of young kids — they don’t have to be in my community. I could easily develop sources in a neighboring city and include them as voices to scratch the local itch.

Same with health or music or books or food or state government or the environment … the list goes on.

[...] Colford, the AP’s director of media relations, has asked to respond to the interview I did with The Toledo Blade’s Ron Royhab about the Ohio News Organization (OHNO), the news-sharing cooperative formed by the state’s [...]

[...] Joshua Benton interviews his old boss, executive editor of the Toledo Blade, Ron Royhab, “about how the sharing has evolved, how it has changed the way newspapers chase stories, and whether there might be a way to monetize the work they do.” Video with transcript highlights. Full story at this link… [...]