media outlets linking to other news stories

I think that this is a very bad idea. Not only does it show support to other organizations and add credibility, it makes the organization doing the linking turn lazy. If they don't have to cover something and can just link to another place covering the story, what motivates them to send someone. In the long run this will only hurt the sites that are linking to other sites. That said, I don't think it will hurt the AP all that much. The AP is a staple, and will continue to send people to cover stories, if anything this might make the AP create its own website and make other organizations link to it instead of sending stories out to all the different organizations.