The Chicago Tribune and six other Tribune Company newspapers plan to drop their contracts with the Associated Press early next month, the wire service said.
The Los Angeles Times, under a separate contract, will maintain its AP membership.
But Tribune's stable of newspapers, which includes the Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Hartford Courant, Morning Call of Allentown, Pa., and the Daily Press of Newport News, Va., had been cutting back on their use of the 166-year-old wire service for the last few years. Now, they will officially drop it, effective in early January.
"We're disappointed by this development but recognize this is a time of transition for these seven Tribune newspapers," Paul Colford, AP's director of media relations, said in a statement to Time Out Chicago. "We hope they'll return to AP as their circumstances change."
Two AP spokespeople did not immediately respond to calls from TheWrap requesting comment...
