The relationship between the Associated Press and member newspapers is changing and being tested like never before. Although AP copy makes up about 40 percent of daily news content in many papers, growing online news is hurting the newspaper industry.

“Do newspapers still need The Associated Press? And does The Associated Press still need newspapers?” Louis Hau wrote for Forbes Thursday.

“Until recently, these would have been ridiculous questions. But print circulation is tumbling. So is advertising revenue. Editors are slashing budgets and making do with less. Readers are moving online, where they get all the national and international news, sports scores and celebrity gossip they can read – for free, updated constantly, and often by AP,” he stated in the Forbes article.

Hau cites editors at top metro newspapers across the United States, including The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Boston Globe, who in December and January wrote letters to the AP criticising several new practices the news agency plans to put in place, such as new fee structures and news coverage practices.

“The failure of Associated Press to cut its rates is especially mystifying given that AP itself seems to be expanding, most recently adding to its already robust, admirably strong foreign coverage, even as its newspaper members undergo rigourous and continuous belt-tightening ... Editors would have welcomed consultation, in the traditional spirit of partnership between AP and member newspapers, on whether foreign coverage was more important to them than a rate cut,” stated one letter, from eight editors at top U.S. newspapers. It was addressed to AP President Tom Curley and AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll.

Ben Marrison, editor of The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio, told Hau of the AP that “they mean well, but I don't think they fully comprehend what we're facing.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Executive Editor David Shribman told Hau that the “AP is worried more about its future than the future of its members.”

On the other hand, AP Board Chairman Dean Singleton told Hau that the majority of AP customers “agree that AP does an outstanding job with the small amount of money it charges newspapers.”

And while the AP once relied on newspapers for a majority of its revenue, it branched out into video and online in the 1990s, enabling it to better compete with other news agencies, and rely less heavily on print. In 2007, the AP drew only 30 percent of its revenue from U.S. newspapers, according to Forbes.

For more on this changing relationship, visit Hau's article directly, at Forbes.com.