AP limited service for sports

We just moved to the AP limited service, and I was wondering if anyone else with that level of service could offer a better understanding of what stories I can expect. The folks at AP weren't the most helpful. I know I'll get anything from the state, but I was told only two national stories per day. If you have this level of service now and can offer a little more insight, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

 

Go to AP exchange. You'll get the rest of the stuff you need. Just takes extra time downloading.

 

Seconded. Our AP server went down and they aren't replacing it so we get all our wire from AP Exchange. You should be able to get whatever you need there.

 

Beware. The AP matched our apexchange service with our limited wire. If that hasn't happened for you yet, you can expect it to happen soon.

 

The entitlement on our AP Exchange also has been changed, so we no longer can get all the things we were getting, even on exchange That's why I was hoping for some input from anyone who already deals with AP limited service.

 

Any sense that anything you can't get from your current service, you can get from AP Exchange is no longer the case, I'm pretty sure.

We get AP national and international wires for sports (although sometimes I wish the international wires would go away). But all we get through Exchange is photos.

 

And, even though the second half of the one NBA game that tipped off before 10:30 p.m. EST has already begun, nary a single photo has shown up.

Hey, AP, do the initials, F-O mean anything to you?

 

We opted for AP limited on everything but sports. In the last 2 weeks, my sports folder has exploded with things I never got before (Minor league hockey standings; Big West Conference summaries). And sometimes, I'll get the same thing eight or nine times. And something has changed so the sports folder doesn't purge itself, so I have to remember to do it myself or else looking for stuff gets ridiculous. I just purged everything that came in before midnight yesterday (Thursday) and there are still over 750 files in the folder.

This also makes it very difficult to find what I want. Wednesday night, I don't think I ever got the Kansas-Colorado gamer from the AP. I had to go steal the version that they sent to Yahoo.

 

I haven't seen any difference in what we're getting pre-Limited vs. post-Limited ... yet. If anything, it looks worse on the Exchange side: High school basketball scores from Montana, 200-word stories on Podunk Art Institute vs. Show Me State and the like, yet, since our analog side was down, it was impossible to find the AP sports digest.

They did figure out a way to stream our supplemental wire (McClatchy Tribune) on the regular sports wire, but since MCT's budget process seems so laizzez-faire, don't know if this is good or bad. I'd like to know there will be a Plaschke or Purdy column on a game before it starts, not after it moved. Some of us have deadlines, ya know?
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We must be getting the full-service sports wire still. But we switched to the MCT photo wire, so we're having to match AP stories with MCT photos. Usually fine for event coverage, but a lot of AP features are out unless they're on a big name.

And since MCT photos come from the member papers, they aren't posted in a timely manner at all, especially for those of us with 11 p.m. deadlines.