It looks like AP will have some competition. Thompson Reuters Corp. has launched a news service for publishers and broadcasters in a bid to take business from AP.

And the news service has landed the bankrupt Tribune Co. (LA Times, Chicago Tribune, WGN, etc.) as its first customer. Newspapers have been balking at AP’s fees. Reuters says it is hiring journalists and using stringers to provide general news. Reuters already provides business and financial news.

As a consequence of the Reuters deal, Tribune Co. plans to “use less material from the AP and reduce its financial commitment to the news cooperative,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

One of Reuters America’s “content partners” will be Examiner.com, the online arm of the conservative San Francisco Examiner, owned by billionaire oilman Phil Anschutz.Examiner.com says it has 68,000 self-employed writers, or “examiners,” in 240 markets contributing content to its websites. Examiner.com doesn’t edit the work of its examiners, one of whom was convicted last month of harassing a bank executive’s son and another admitted to writing a “series of preposterous articles” about celebrities to see how much money she could get from her employers, who pay by the pageview.