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A sign of things to come

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Drip, Aug 18, 2008.

  1. ServeItUp

    ServeItUp Active Member

    Not much of a trend. A friend of mine worked out west at a paper that dropped AP last year, I think, which meant every reporter was absolutely scrambling come summer.

    A very short-sighted move. Bad all around.
     
  2. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Sadly, I was. 8)
     
  3. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    What about the day-to-day agate? You can be 75 percent local, like we are, but you still need national agate like the NBA, NFL, MLB standings, etc. Don't you?
     
  4. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Not if your community is supporting a totally local publication.
     
  5. tapintoamerica

    tapintoamerica Well-Known Member

    My favorite part of the letter is the end.
    "Tom, you've got to do better."

    Warmest regards, ...
     
  6. The thinking of news editors is we can get the same national coverage from cheaper wires, and get state coverage from other papers by trading stories. It's happening in my state. And as far as national sports agate and copy, well, tough. They want sports to find another way to do it. There are some services out there that provide national stats. The AP contracts are so huge in comparison to other wires that editors are willing to sacrifice quality in sports to save the money.
     
  7. Editude

    Editude Active Member

    And if wires are needed on a story, there are options with the LA Times-Post and NYT services that would be much cheaper than AP.
     
  8. OnTheRiver

    OnTheRiver Active Member

    Know what else sucks about the whole AP thing?

    In our market, AP picks up a bunch of our newspaper stories, which mysteriously end up moments later on the local TV stations' websites, with an AP byline, often without the little "information provided by ..." line at the bottom.

    So basically, we're providing a ton of online content for our competition.

    Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
     
  9. forever_town

    forever_town Well-Known Member

    Depends what kind of paper you are.

    A paper like mine doesn't need national agate. As a weekly, it would make no sense to run what would have been the most recent major league standings. They'd be old by the time the paper hits the newsstands presses.

    If your paper's the only game in town, I'd think you'd need at least national agate. I'd also add the option of wire coverage of the state if your paper doesn't have a reporter covering that as a beat. And most smaller papers do run a national or international roundup.

    If your paper's pretty large and is the go-to paper for people in your town, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to ditch AP.
     
  10. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    This just in, four more papers are dumping AP.
    http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003840644
     
  11. Angola!

    Angola! Guest

    Holy shit. The Spokesman-Review and the Bakersfield Californian are in that list. That's wild.

    The other two are the Yakima Republic and Wenatchee World.

    So, that is one Idaho paper, three Washington papers and a California paper.

    Interesting.
     
  12. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    TV stations have been dumping the AP wire for several years now. Of course, when they need copy on a national story, they just go online and "rewrite" whatever they find.
     
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