It used to be that wire service coverage represented a major coup for communications professionals. When the Associated Press or Reuters picked up your story, it would be seen in newspapers around the world, picked up by radio and TV stations and – more recently – linked to the inboxes of millions of web-based e-mail users. Most important, you could always depend on the balanced reporting that helped the wires build an almost unassailable brand of journalistic integrity.

As a former AP reporter myself, I have always been proud of the organization’s reputation for fairness, objectivity, and straight-down-the-middle “Sergeant Joe Friday” brand of news reporting.

But now, according to a story published in The Washington Post, it seems that open competition with the blogosphere and 24-hour cable news and the evolving needs of the news audience has taken a toll on one of the last redoubts of pure journalism left in our global society – but not in the way that many might think.

The wire services still break news at a pace that other media outlets find tough to match. With bureaus just about anywhere that news could be made, they have a reach that is simply unbeatable. But today, at least one wire service (the AP) isn’t just racing to be first with the facts, it’s vying to be first with critical analysis as well – bending a key tenet of pure journalism and possibly giving rise to a trend that all crisis communications professionals should be watching closely over the coming months.

The Washington Post’s piece references AP headlines or leads from the 2008 election cycle such as “Obama Walks Arrogance Line,” “Slick Hillary,” and “Biden Pick Shows Lack of Confidence” to make its point. And it cites anonymous AP reporters to strengthen its case. One such reporter said “It’s enough that we’re expected to always be first, this incredible pressure to break the news… But now we also have to magically find a brilliant and nifty lead, the unique angle, while still beating everyone else.”

What this portends is that we may be nearing the end of days for balanced journalism as we know it. After all, if the AP is offering commentary, there simply aren’t many outfits left that don’t. And if breaking news is going to be accompanied by instant analysis moving forward, then crisis managers need to evolve to meet the needs of those that are not only telling their stories, but editorializing.

Specifically, that means greater emphasis has to be placed on controlling the story from the outset. Messaging needs to be nuanced to offer reporters a hand in drawing conclusions. And reporter biases need to be anticipated so that they can be somehow neutralized in each communication.

This is a watershed moment in the history of modern journalism – and it’s those that recognize it as such that will be able to turn a disturbing trend into a tactical advantage