Gannett, McClatchy chains to curb use of AP reporting
Two major American newspaper chains, Gannett and McClatchy, plan to drastically curtail their business relationships with The Associated Press, which supplies news reports and images to media outlets around the world.
Gannett, the largest newspaper company in the United States and the publisher of USA Today, said that, starting Monday, it would no longer use articles, photos and videos from the AP in its hundreds of publications.
“Between USA Today and our incredible network of more than 200 newsrooms, we create more journalism every day than the AP,” Kristin Roberts, the chief content officer of Gannett, wrote Tuesday in a company memo.
Roberts noted that Gannett would continue to use the AP for election data and its stylebook, which provides guidance on language and journalistic practices. She added that Gannett had signed an agreement with a rival news agency, Reuters, for global news “while we build our capacity.”
Lark-Marie Antón, a spokesperson for Gannett, said in a statement that the decision “enables us to invest further in our newsrooms.”
McClatchy, which hedge fund Chatham Asset Management bought out of bankruptcy in 2020, told its editors this week that it would stop using some AP services next month.
McClatchy operates about 30 newspapers, including The Miami Herald and The Kansas City Star, as well as a bureau in Washington, D.C.
In an email sent Monday, Kathy Vetter, McClatchy’s senior vice president of news and audience, said that the AP’s feed would end March 29 and that no AP content could be published after March 31. She said, however, that McClatchy would continue to use the AP’s election results data.
“With this decision, we will no longer pay millions for content that serves less than 1% of our readers,” Vetter wrote in the email, which was viewed 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.”
Lauren Easton, a spokesperson for the AP, said conversations with Gannett and McClatchy over their contracts “have been productive and are ongoing.”
The AP, founded in 1846, has reporters in every state and nearly 100 countries. It provides wire content, including articles, photos and videos, to publications and broadcasters around the world, including the New York Times.
It also has a central role in U.S. election coverage: Many major news organizations use its election data, and some wait for the AP to call a race before they report a winner.
The AP once relied primarily on licensing fees from newspapers but now has a variety of other revenue streams, including a news website, an e-commerce site, and software and production services. Fees from U.S. newspapers account for roughly 10% of the AP’s income, according to an article on its website.