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My paper's dropping the AP wire - has yours?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Cadet, Jul 3, 2007.

  1. TrooperBari

    TrooperBari Well-Known Member

    Cadet, you have my deepest sympathies. I had to deal with a lack of wire at my first stop, and it was ugly at times (especially this time of year). I'm still at a relatively small stop and we have AP Wire, though it's the lowest level of access.

    Cutting wire altogether does seem drastic. Is there a larger daily nearby where your readers can/will go for state and national content?
     
  2. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Can you dogleg photos?
     
  3. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Cadet's paper might have to invent it.

    (And just to be clear, my point about the fillers and my point about the photos were meant as separate points, although I see how they could be taken as together -- even though they are in separate paragraphs. I've edited the post to add the word "too.")
     
  4. Cadet

    Cadet Guest

    This is a small daily that is already operating with a bare-bones staff. We're down to an editor, sports editor, community editor, one photographer and three writers. Our proofreader left last week and will not be replaced (which is OK, because she was incompetent). Size of the paper itself fluctuates daily - anywhere from 8 to 32 pages. There is access to larger papers with more state/national news, but like bigbadeagle we're in a location that often makes state/national news.

    In my paper's case, there is no reason to do this other than cost-cutting and hypocrisy. When the current publisher was the editor, he relied on wire copy every day to fill holes.

    But I want to make this a larger discussion: With so many immediate news outlets available, does it make sense for small papers to have the wire? How can it be accomplished with current staff sizes? Is this a trend?

    Since AP can't pick up articles from papers that are not members, does this mean local news will not become state or national news? Does this move cut off our community from the rest of the state?
     
  5. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    The customary beancounters' argument is, "if our readers want to read state, world or national news, they'll read a bigger paper and quit reading ours."

    Of course they will, but this FORCES them to.
     
  6. TrooperBari

    TrooperBari Well-Known Member

    It absolutely makes sense for small papers to have the wire ... unless your publisher is assuming subscribers aren't interested in anything that happens outside your coverage area.

    If, let's say, Tom Cruise goes apeshit and shoots up the Hustler store in Hollywood, people might want to know that. You obviously can't be all things to all people, but you do owe it to your readers to give them the most complete coverage possible that is within the paper's means.

    The last thing publishers need is to give readers more reasons to take their business somewhere else.
     
  7. Idaho

    Idaho Active Member

    Well, that just sucks, Cadet.

    Losing the national copy is bad enough. But the local prep scores is another thing. If it's important to your paper and readers, you could always try to call other papers and get the info via email.

    Also, update and mail the resume if you feel the urge and are in a position to do so.
     
  8. joe_schmoe

    joe_schmoe Active Member

    I think there are papers where it is almost needed to eliminate wire for cost, but it does suck. Sure you'll lose readership, but the cost of lost readers won't be more than the savings of lost wire, since revenue is still primarily generated through ads. An annual subscription to our rag costs about $100 (rounding for ease). The AP fee structure varies, but if you rag paid a minimum of abot 5K a year that would be 50 subscriptions to be lost to make an impact. I think our rag may pay that much in a month, but that's not the point.

    I don't think it's a trend to lose the wire. But as new media becomes more and more readily available, more and more papers realize that the wire is useless and the emphasis is more and more on local impact news, so I can see more papers losing the wire. Sucks for those that have to fill the space, but that's the industry.
     
  9. What would a paper like that have looked like on Sept. 12, 2001? Or the days after the 2000 election? Or today?
     
  10. Sam Mills 51

    Sam Mills 51 Well-Known Member

    Sorry, Cadet. That decision by your publisher was both short-sighted and ignorant ... did he/she leave you his/her number for availability of stuff on deadline when the poor folks in the newsroom are scrambling for any sort of spacekill?

    I interviewed at one place years ago - a Monday-Friday daily - that was threatening to eliminate AP. And they wondered why I turned down the job ... well, that and haggling over $1,500 I know they had in the budget for the spot.

    I worked at one daily that didn't have AP photo ... that was bad when you consider that the one photog on staff couldn't be bothered to shoot much of anything for sports and the SE wasn't at all good with a camera. Luckily, I didn't work for them during 9/11 ... I heard they were trying to shoot an image from a television set because they were SOL.
     
  11. Bruhman

    Bruhman Active Member

    Sadly, it's becoming the norm. We keep taking stuff out of the paper because "they can get it elsewhere."

    But giving readers stuff they can't get elsewhere - like, say, Little League stories - doesn't increase their interest in that stuff, which is generally limited to parents.

    I believe most readers appreciate national/regional news in the local paper, which saves them the time of looking for other sources.

    If we keep sending them elsewhere, I fear many won't ever return. Because they couldn't care less about little Johnny and Susie.
     
  12. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    AP has different levels of service and I strongly suspect that your paper could afford to keep the wire if they had chosen.
    At the biggest papers and the smallest papers, the wire is to fill the gaps, photos and agate. It is more the medium-sized papers that are absolutely reliant on the wire.
    Just remember, the AP isn't the only game in town. You have statehouse news services and lots of the bigger non-profits, state and federal agencies along with colleges and universities send out decent to high quality copy.
    So instead of the AP rewrite, you'll just end up running the press release from the big hospital in town on the dangers of bottle rockets.
    And for really big news events, you can buy all kinds of photos. And they're cheap, much cheaper than the AP.
     
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