Associated Press CEO Tom Curley wants to build his agency's global market and new media presence, but some U.S. newspaper companies are not so happy with paying higher fees.

An excerpt:

The chase for readers and customers has prompted The A.P. to move more aggressively to pump up revenues flowing from countries other than the United States. It has restructured its global operations, resulting in more than a dozen forced retirements or departures of experienced bureau chiefs and journalists from Cairo to Paris.

The A.P. has also dared to ruffle some United States newspaper publishers with plans to charge for the republication of its articles online, a move that could be backed with an enforcement unit to police unauthorized use.

The campaign to make The A.P. more competitive globally comes as newspapers in Western Europe are confronting falling circulation and are cutting news services. And in the United States, some wary publishers are talking about a grass-roots rebellion against the new charges.

"People are pretty upset," said Michael Phillips, editorial director for the E. W. Scripps group of 21 newspapers. Mr. Phillips was co-author of an article for The Online Journalism Review proposing a Napster-like file-sharing system for newspapers. With its new fees, Mr. Phillips wrote, The A.P. is "planting the seeds of its own demise."

"Charge us once, but it's not fair to charge us twice for news we're dealing with in two or three platforms," Mr. Phillips said in an interview. "Our audience is spreading out over a variety of media, and we're simply following."