Odd AP writer titles

So I was on the STL P-D site today, and they had a story written by an AP writer:

Feds proposes graphic cigarette warning labels
By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM
AP Tobacco Writer

I just found it strange that this guy's title is AP Tobacco Writer. Is there really enough news in the tobacco industry for the AP to have a writer dedicated to that? What other kinds of odd beats does the AP have writers dedicated to?

 

From health issues to court cases to business news to farming angles, I'd think there would be plenty of fodder to make it a full-time beat. Spend plenty of time in Virginia and North Carolina, I'd imagine. And it kind of sounds interesting to me.

 

Given the importance of the industry historically and all the changes it has gone through and continues to go through, I'd think there would be room for MORE than a single tobacco writer, and one doesn't really surprise me, I don't think.

 

Well, there are plenty of prostitution arrests daily in the U.S. Maybe there should be an AP Prostitution Writer.

Of course, said writer would have to devote a lot of his or her time to covering politics.

 

Is there an AP Strip Clubs Writer? Lots of shootings outside them, the prostitution industry. Playboy could be an industry mag.

 

I bet there's be a never-ending supply of applicants.

 

You only cover us when we're naked!

 

Here are some of the recommended names in the sports department:

AP Dancing Writer
AP Cheerleading Writer
AP Underwater Basket Weaving Writer

 

Hey, those underwater basket weavers work very hard!

 

What? No AP Junior Varsity Writer?

 

He's on furlough, so the AP Junior High Writer is filling in.

 

As a bonus, later in their career the Tobacco writer can segue nicely onto the AP cancer beat.