AP: Expanding into a Multifaceted News Source

The Associated Press can do what no other news organization is capable of doing—the ability to cover news virtually at any place at any time. In today’s rapidly evolving media atmosphere, that is no longer good enough.
Steven Komarow, Deputy Chief of Bureau, Carole Feldman, Director of News Operations and Budgets, and another AP director discussed what has become an inherent change in mindset from top to bottom at the AP. Whereas the AP has generally been successful as a print and photography organization by selling wholesale news (a concept which Director Lumpkin explained in detail), the advent of Internet news and new media have altered the AP’s direction in providing news.
Not only must the AP give partial credence and attention to notoriously unreliable news sources such as the National Inquirer and TMZ, it must compete with news organizations such as Politico that have become the forerunners of the new breed of “in your face” and instant news which utilizes new media and multifaceted journalism.
The AP, in my opinion, is following a fairly consistent pattern of falling behind the curve in multimedia and cross-format ways of providing news to consumers or their audience base/clientele within the working pieces inside the Beltway. Just like many of the organizations we have visited, they are playing catch up rather than taking the risk of being innovators and trend setters. The AP is now trying to break from the exact mindset that Tom Rosenstiel claimed had contributed to the hole print and broadcast journalism finds itself stuck in.
While the AP may be the only organization that can provide in depth news across the world in an in depth and investigative manner (CNN has tried, but apparently failed), they have had to cut staff and resources just as standard newspapers have.
The general concept Carole and Steve tried to push was the transformation of their print journalists and photographers into multiplatform “AP Reporters.” The ability for their journalists to be able to shoot video, write a print story, conduct a radio interview, and eventually edit packages, seemed to echo a basic idea that has permeated the Schieffer School in the revamping of curriculum. I was shocked, however, that this shift in thinking has only taken place in the last two years for the Associated Press.
Carole said the AP had trained 110 AP writers/photographers to become multiplatform journalists that would be capable of shooting video and writing a story or taking photographs. I assumed those 110 AP journalists might be within the AP D.C. Bureau or within a certain region in the nation; that, in fact, was for the entire domestic AP news service. Why did it take the AP so long to jump onto this concept?
How far will the concept of citizen journalism, be it mobile pictures and videos or tweets, impact legitimate news sources such as the AP? I feel it is a topic that we only brushed the surface on.