Tribune Co. has given the required two-year notice that it plans to remove its slate of newspapers from the Associated Press (AP) service, Editor & Publisher reports.

Tribune owns nine daily papers in the U.S., including biggies the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune.

AP made rate structure changes in 2007, which will take affect in 2009, and since that time there has been controversy surrounding the service. According to the E&P story other papers including the
Star Tribune of Minneapolis, the Bakersfield Californian, the Post
Register of Idaho Falls, and the Yakima Herald-Republic and Wenatchee
World, both of Washington.

E&P‘s Joe Strupp writes:

“AP officials said member newspapers would begin to
find out in July what their exact fees would be for 2009, which
prompted some of the recent decisions and could result in other
newspapers cutting their service before the end of the year.”