The rapid growth of Politico's network and its success in attracting big regional newspapers spell trouble for the Associated Press, which has found itself struggling to retain newspaper members attracted by less expensive alternatives.

According to Politico, its content-sharing network now counts as members The Arizona Republic, Des Moines Register, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Philadelphia Inquirer, as well as all 27 dailies owned by Advance Publications, including the Star-Ledger, based in Newark, NJ, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the Times-Picayune of New Orleans.

McClatchy will use the content on its Washington bureau's Web site. Members of the Politico Network can use its content in exchange for advertising placement, says E&P.

The list includes several newspapers suffering from high-profile financial woes. The Star-Ledger was recently forced to cut 40% of its staff or face closure, and Philadelphia Media Holdings, the publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer, fell into technical default on its substantial debt in June, according to Standard & Poor's. Earlier this week, the Plain Dealer laid off 27 employees, following 50 staffers cut in November.

Indeed, metro dailies across the country are struggling to cut costs and maintain profitability--an increasingly difficult task in the face of plummeting print revenues. Print revenues went into freefall in the second quarter of 2006, more than a year before the current recession began. Now forced to contend with the economic downturn as well, newspaper publishers are reconsidering costs long considered essential, including membership in the AP.

In late October, the beleaguered Tribune Co. said it was dropping its AP membership, and E.W. Scripps is said to be considering the same. Earlier this year, The Columbus Dispatch, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, and several other regional newspapers said they were canceling their AP memberships. Eight Ohio newspapers formed their own news-sharing service, hinting that they might drop the AP, and Pennsylvania papers are considering a similar move.

In November, CNN announced the launch of a new wire service, which the cable network is pushing as a low-cost alternative to the AP. CNN Wire will draw on reporting from about 3,000 journalists around the world, according to CNN. More recently, the McClatchy Co. said it will share foreign news stories written with The Christian Science Monitor on a trial basis; the temporary three-month deal may be extended and even expanded in the future.

Feeling the squeeze from all this competition, the AP announced in late November that it will cut 10% of its total workforce in the coming year, or about 400 positions out of a total 4,100. Chief executive Tom Curley said that a substantial proportion of the cuts will have to come from the newsroom, since journalists already make up three-quarters of the AP's staff.

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