MCT wire or AP?

In terms of coverage of a national event, such as the ALCS, do you use L.A. Times/Chicago Tribune or Associated Press gamers, assuming you have no local ties in the game?

I went with AP tonight even though Tribune had moved a story, but I know some of my coworkers would have done the opposite.

 

I don't have a choice. We just get AP.

 

we've got AP and MCT both, and if I've got time to read all the offerings I go with the best one. I try to stress that to the people I work with, but they seem to just always default to AP. Oh, well.

 

I nearly always hated the MCT version of the story. Like their first version was the flowery optional that AP would send much later, after the news got out.

Course, that was like 8 years ago, so they may have changed that.

 

I have both, and it's not the news service, it's the writer more often than not. One thing I know I missed when we were on AP Limited is having a vanilla story vs. a MCT story that's slanted toward its hometown audience.

If OP wants a one-size-fits-all answer to this one, though, can't be done.

 

I was more just looking for a discussion. One thing I've found is that AP stories are easier to trim, while the MCT stories are shorter in general and read very smoothly if run in full. For things like U.S. Open golf, where there are four-five MCT choices for a main bar and we're going to run 20-25 inches of story, I tend to go with the MCT story with the best lede.

 

I'm amazed by the number of papers that MCT has added over the past few years. But some papers -- I think the Boston Herald is one -- don't send their stories until well after midnight ET. That doesn't seem to be very useful.