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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. Chi City 81

    Chi City 81 Guest

    Indeed. Preferably go west, young woman.
     
  2. STLIrish

    STLIrish Active Member

    For any daily, dropping the wire is insane. That's basically assuming your readers are provincial idiots and giving up on anyone who's not a provincial idiot. Even if you're willing to concede that they'll get their national news elsewhere, what about state-level news, state government, state U's football team, etc? They're not going to find that on CNN. What about next-day game scores and breaking news about, oh, say, the war? And forget about your website being useful for anything. Readers may want their news online, but there's no reason they can't get it online from you. Unless you don't have a fucking AP feed on your website, then they can't. You can't even localize bigger-picture stories without re-inventing the wheel or risking plagiarism charges. The whole thing's asinine.
     
  3. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    This part occurred to me earlier. I'm glad someone posted it, because it flew away when my brain became distracted. This point seems like trouble that would almost daily be a major headache.
     
  4. JBHawkEye

    JBHawkEye Well-Known Member

    How many times did Grudge Paper Editor send your paper his resume?

    Sorry. Back to the thread.
     
  5. Sxysprtswrtr

    Sxysprtswrtr Active Member

    I disagree in a way. Just because you're not running the wire doesn't mean reporters don't have access to other news sources. Other papers in the state most likely have AP feeds on their site. Maybe I'm not thinking about something, but what's the harm in reporters reading an AP story on another site, and then localizing the story, catering to that region's audience? Sure, it means more work and research for reporters, but in theory, doesn't mean you can't gain access to other state-wide news in order to garner ideas for briefs and local stories.
     
  6. Johnny Dangerously

    Johnny Dangerously Well-Known Member

    Cadet,

    I can't answer specifics about how cutting the AP wire would cut off your community from the rest of the state and the country, but I'm guessing the ways would be many, and they'd be pound-foolish.

    Also, if your community has any kinds of special ties with ongoing major national or international news, you're in big trouble. Unless your paper can send a reporter to D.C. or, let's say, The Hague, you'll be cut off from those national and international developments and ceding coverage of them to bigger papers and to local television.

    I grew up in a small town that was one of Boeing's stops for about a decade. Without AP copy, we'd have been in big trouble in the years and months before Boeing came to town. Often, the way news like that breaks, it breaks gradually, subtly, and in many unpredictable ways, and sometimes you can recognize the trends and not-so-obvious connections if you have the wire and have reporters who regularly read it. Without it? You're shooting darts in the dark. And once you're on the radar of a "Boeing," your readers would want all of the news coming out of headquarters, and that would be hard without wire copy. Well, I guess you could send a reporter to "Seattle," but ... that would cost money, now, wouldn't it?

    It might be some sort of military thing, a direct tie to the DOD or a firm that does ongoing work for the Pentagon. It might be a Congressional investigation into something that affected your community years ago and is about to become a hot-button issue in Washington. Whatever the specifics, if you live in a place that has links or potential links to developments across the country or the globe, your paper is about to become a computer without an ISP.
     
  7. EE94

    EE94 Guest

    get ready for that ethically wonderful task of scalping websites.
     
  8. tyler durden 71351

    tyler durden 71351 Active Member

    God forbid your Congressman/woman becomes a big wheel in D.C. or gets tangled up in a scandal. Of course, I'm sure his or her spokesman will send you a press release about that Washington Post investigation into allegations of corruption.
    Or any of your hometown sports heroes ends up at Out of State U. or in a pro sports league. Readers might like to know that Johnny Basketball dropped 35 points on the Celtics the night before.
    I can see dropping the AP if you're a weekly or even twice a week -- you ought to be writing local only stories. But that's suicide for a daily to drop the service.
     
  9. JayFarrar

    JayFarrar Well-Known Member

    Nah, a decent-sized chunk of what the AP does is rewrite press releases or do original reporting based off a release. Depending on the beat, it isn't hard to see where AP gets most of their information.
    The thing that news side will miss the most is the daybook and the digests.
    The first paper I worked at, M-F daily, had what AP then called news desk, it was text-only and it wasn't PTP, so you had to go to a Web site, to download that day's report.
    The hardest part was illustrating the paper since you only had staff photos or handout mugs.

    Be sure to watch the AP and see how much they cherry pick from your Web site. Because they will. Oh yes they will.
     
  10. bueller

    bueller Member

    Quoting Terence Mann
    They're gold at my post, which has AP wire and is a daily. Today's editions included a school-supplied brief about the girls varsity and junior varsity basketball teams going to a camp (hosanna, hosanna).

    The ending: "It was a successful camp showing a promising season for both teams."
    :'(
     
  11. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    Tally box for national results? You do mean "tally," right?
    Did I imply something there?
    I can't see how a NEWSPAPER would/should cover national elections, senatorial elections, congressional elections, SCOTUS hearings/decisions with a "tally box."
    How many people read a paper for election results or analysis? Wow. I just don't know how to answer that.
     
  12. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    Ding, ding, ding.
     
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