Well - many of the papers that have given notice have begun to outline some 'replacement' options:
1) Regional sharing cooperatives 2) Alternative syndicates (probably several to fill the void) 3) Reducing wire content and tightening the newshole
I would guess all of the above will happen. On the other hand, if AP does drastically revamp their fee schedule who knows. I don't think anyone wants to have to make this work without AP so there is a lot of incentive for papers to work it out if they can.
I don't think what we went with was pandering. But the guilt there is - did we leave some readership on the table by not going more tabloid with it. We are definitely not a tab - but building online readership certainly raises these newsroom questions more than it used to.
