Do Not Want: AP Ends Talks With ‘Cheezburger’ Parent

August wire service The Associated Press has ended months — yes, actual months — of negotiations with Pet Holdings, parent of productivity-killing websites like LOLcat purveyor I Can Has Cheezburger and failure chronicler FAIL Blog.

The partnership would’ve combined Pet Holdings’ ability to prod users to create captions for interesting photos with the significant catalog of high-quality images wire services maintain. The Los Angeles Times reports:

The Associated Press finally axed the project on concerns over “journalistic integrity,” Pet Holdings Chief Ben Huh said in an interview Monday.

And:

For the prestigious wire service to even consider associating itself with a business that makes a living from fan-made cat pictures may have seemed unthinkable a decade ago.

Highly thinkable now, though, as the AP continues to ponder ways to digitize its business in the wake of losing its contract with CNN in June.

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