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Jun

26

Oh Yes to OHNO and Bye Bye to AP


From the Wall Street Journal blogs:

Some newspapers have attempted to reduce their reliance on the AP. This past spring, prompted by unhappiness with the AP’s fees and reduced coverage of state and local news, the eight largest newspapers in Ohio created a cooperative called the Ohio News Organization, or OHNO, which allows its members to sidestep the AP by sharing stories. Five Montana newspapers owned by the newspaper concern Lee Enterprises Inc. have also begun sharing more content. And editors in Texas, Pennsylvania and Indiana have quietly inquired about how the Ohio cooperative works.

…

Ohio is ground zero for the widening rift between the AP and its member newspapers. Ben Marrison, editor of the Columbus Dispatch, says a recent trial in Akron involving the theft of state money epitomizes members’ frustrations. Before the trial Mr. Marrison placed a call to the AP Ohio bureau to find out if it would be sending a reporter.

In the past, Mr. Marrison says, he could usually count on the AP to cover such a trial if he wanted to commit more reporters to a bigger story. When he was told the AP wouldn’t have a reporter there, he sent one of his own to Akron. Shortly after the story was posted on the Dispatch’s Web site, an AP staffer rewrote it for a broader audience and put the new version on the state wire. “So it was important enough for them to move, but not important enough for them to cover,” Mr. Marrison said. “What has happened is we’ve become the wire service for the wire service.”

The portion in bold echoes AP’s own displeasure with blogs that do, well, somewhat what the AP did with that story.

What a surprise.

What do you think of OHNO so far?

Hattip to Romensko.

By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:36 pm June 26th, 2008 in Blogging, Business, Cleveland+, Media, Ohio, Writing, leadership 

Comments

2 Responses to “Oh Yes to OHNO and Bye Bye to AP”

  1. 1 Carole Cohen on June 26th, 2008 8:11 pm

    It’s a hard call because on the one hand, based on your words, AP seems to have lost interest in us. On the other hand, more local news that is not about sports or entertainment is still a sore spot (although I do have to say, the PD is doing a better job, in mho, over the last six weeks or so). So on the one hand I have a wistfulness about AP and yet like the idea of OHNO. Why shouldn’t we take care of ourselves? It would surely piss me off if I was becoming the ‘wire for the wire’.

  2. 2 BizzyBlog » Not That I’m in a Hurry to See Them (Ever) ….. on June 27th, 2008 8:21 am

    [...] and Ohio’s main newspapers are not getting along well (HT Jill at WLST): This past spring, prompted by unhappiness with the AP’s fees and reduced coverage of state [...]

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