Tribune Papers To Go On "Diet" Without Associated Press

November 3, 2009 4:36 p.m. EST

Wellington, FL (AHN) - The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune are among a number of newspapers that will go on a diet of sorts next week that will cut out a major news agency.

Beginning Sunday, member papers of the Tribune Co. will stop using stories from the Associated Press for a week. Content will be increased from other news agencies, including Reuters, the Washington Post, New York Times, Agence France Presse, Cable News Network, Global Post, Bloomberg and McClatchy newspapers.

Content also will be shared from other media outlets owned by the Tribune Co. In addition to the Times and Tribune, the company owns eight other daily newspapers and tabloids, 23 television stations, cable station WGN and a radio station.

The papers will continue to use AP sports statistics and stories considered to be vital that are not available from other news outlets.

The week-long experiment is part of a test of whether the AP is still relevant in today's Internet-connected world as newspapers nationwide trim costs in an era of declining readership and advertising revenue.

In October 2008, Tribune Co. gave the contractually-required notice to the AP that the media chain will discontinue the service in 2010. Other papers also have served notice that they will end their contracts with AP.

After complaints from member papers about a proposed rate hike, the AP board of directors announced $35 million in rate reductions in April that will go into effect in 2010. The agency also reduced 2009 rates by $30 million.

The Tribune Co. is not the first to conduct an "AP-free" news cycle. In October, the Star-Ledger of Newark, NJ, published a day's paper without AP contributions.

Tribune TV stations will not participate in the experiment, as it falls during a ratings period. Neither will the newspapers' Web sites.