Time Warner's CNN is in the midst of rolling out something called CNN Wire, a news feed service that's aimed directly at competing with the Associated Press, the non-profit newspaper consortium whose fee increases have some member papers running for the hills.

Like the AP, CNN Wire is an exercise in group think: Some 3,000 journalists around the globe will contribute to it, and newspapers are already signing up to run the copy. There is also web video available, but no photos (yet), all at costs pitched lower than the AP. Meanwhile, back in September Politico joined the wire fray; it has 67 newspapers on board, including all of Si Newhouse's rags, for its Politico Network product, which only requires newspapers to hand over online advertising space (they split the revenue) in exchange for content.

All of this is bad news for the Associated Press, of course, which once maintained a near lock on wire copy with the occasional Reuters and Agence France-Presse article sneaking in, but now has cheaper (or free-er) competition. But who is this good news for?

Newspapers. Or more accurately, their readers.

Sure, newspapers will get copy on the cheap, even if it is in the gossipy writing style of Politico or the tasteless headline writing style of CNN ("Watch: Man falls from roof onto toddler"), which is good for the bottom line.

But it also means more variety, from more sources, for readers. As newspapers continue to slash budgets in the face of advertising declines, there are fewer reporters, editors, and even culture critics. In one scenario, that could have meant more leaning on the Associated Press, which could fill inches on the cheap, but would turn most papers into carbon copies of each other.

Enter Politico Network and CNN Wire, two alternatives to the AP, which we would suggest newspapers begin using together. If the Arizona Republic and Newark Star-Ledger can't afford to send reporters to war zones or even to D.C. for Obama's inauguration, at least they'll have more options as to which copy they'll run with the entry of these two services.

Which makes us say: Bring 'em on! More wire services like Politico and CNN's! Clearly, the best scenario would be to have every newspaper employing hundreds of talented scoop-mongerers, but that's simply unrealistic. At the very least, though, those dying rags could employ a few separate voices from competing wire services.

Update: Looks like we forgot to mention the content sharing partnership between McClatchy newspapers and the Christian Science Monitor.