AP's Olympic Copy Policy: What do you think?

[daveevansedge]

They have a lengthy daily Olympic digest of stories, but thus far, the overwhelming majority of that copy is listed under a "premium" tier heading and is not allowed to be used unless papers put up an additional fee. And we're not just talking features here.

For Sunday papers, the only stories that could be used if you didn't buy the whole package were: the Ohno speedskating gamer; the luge folo; and the roundup.

So, the story on the first American to win a gold medal at these Games -- Hannah Kearney in the women's moguls -- was on the premium portion of the digest. It's freakin' breaking news, it's the first U.S. gold, and the story is on a premium tier. The roundup had just two sentences on the event. Pretty weak.

Also on the premium plan: the breaking news on the horde of protesters that raised hell in Vancouver on Saturday, smashing a bunch of windows at a major department store, leading to a pile of arrests, etc. But you can't use the full story, because it's on the premium tier.

Features, takeouts, etc., I can understand charging extra for -- AP has to make ends meet, too. But breaking news, particularly for events that net any sort of medal haul for the U.S., should be fair game for all.

 

[HanSenSE]

This is nothing new, they had a premium service in Beijing too. Still, seems like they did run a roundup and separates on some of the bigger events (swimming, track, basketball).

 

[Moderator1]

Have they always done premiums or is this a new development since papers have cut back?

 

[daveevansedge]

This is nothing new, they had a premium service in Beijing too. Still, seems like they did run a roundup and separates on some of the bigger events (swimming, track, basketball).

Yes, they did this for Beijing, but not nearly to this extent. I think they just need to loosen it up a little bit, with regard to newsworthy events.

 

[fishhack2009]

What are us good folks on AP Exchange going to get?

 

[daveevansedge]

What are us good folks on AP Exchange going to get?

AP is putting everything on the wire, from what I can tell, so I assume everything is on AP Exchange, too. But only three items on each of the past two days' digests (yesterday's and today's) were available for use without paying an additional fee. Everything below those three items on the digest is listed as being "premier" tier and requires paying a fee to have permission to use.

So for Monday editions, the "free" portion included two stories on luge, and a roundup. That's it.

 

[fishhack2009]

What are us good folks on AP Exchange going to get?

AP is putting everything on the wire, from what I can tell, so I assume everything is on AP Exchange, too. But only three items on each of the past two days' digests (yesterday's and today's) were available for use without paying an additional fee. Everything below those three items on the digest is listed as being "premier" tier and requires paying a fee to have permission to use.

So for Monday editions, the "free" portion included two stories on luge, and a roundup. That's it.

The roundup is probably about all we'd have space for anyway, since we're in the heart of NASCAR country and the season just started again. We'll probably be good with that and a photo, which we'll have to get from MCT.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

How likely would they be to catch someone using a "premier" story without permission?

 

[GB-Hack]

How likely would they be to catch someone using a "premier" story without permission?

Would it neccesarily appear on that paper's wire without them having paid the fee upfront?

 

[HanSenSE]

We're not exactly a winter sports mecca to I wasn't planning on using much more than the daily roundup and photos anyway. But if it looks like something big happens that I can't get from AP, I know I can fall back on our supplemental wire.

 

[BillyT]

I am surprised to see peoplesaying they are not using much on the Olympics.

Yes, I live 90 minutes from Lake Placid now, so the area is crazy for it, but even when I lived on the New England coast I read as much as I possibly could about it.

What is the word on TV ratings? Any idea?

(And, yes, I understand that in some places Daytona's gonna be more important than anything else)

 

[MileHigh]

Opening ceremonies drew a good rating.

I found this perspective about the Winter Olympics pretty good. (Disclaimer: He's a former boss, but he knows his stuff.)

http://www.oberjuerge.com/http:/www.oberjuerge.com/they-put-on-the-winter-olympics-without-me/

 

[fishhack2009]

How likely would they be to catch someone using a "premier" story without permission?

If it's like the premium content on the MCT site, clicking on it will take you to a site asking you to pay whatever the per-story fee is.

 

[Mr. X]

NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony averaged 32.6 million viewers, third-most among the seven opening ceremonies where individual U.S. viewership figures are available, according to statistics released Saturday by The Nielsen Co.

Viewership for Friday's ceremony from Vancouver, British Columbia, was up 47 percent over the 22.2 million average for the opening of the 2006 games, which were held in Torino, Italy. U.S. viewership traditionally rises for Olympic events held in North America because they are able to be shown live in prime time in most of the nation.

Here is a link to the complete story: http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_14399292?nclick_check=1

NBC’s Saturday prime-time coverage of the Winter Olympics averaged 26.2 million viewers, more than any night during the 2006 Winter Olympics, even without figure skating, according to figures released Sunday by The Nielsen Co.

Here is a link to the complete story: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-02-14/local-county-news/saturday-winter-olympics-watched-by-26-2-million

 

[BillyT]

Thank you, Mr. X.

I know I was being lazy, and I appreciate that.

I know we all judge interest based on our local area and space.

It just seems that this is one that's actually on our cycle, so people are going to be more interested in the results.

 

[HanSenSE]

I am surprised to see peoplesaying they are not using much on the Olympics.

Yes, I live 90 minutes from Lake Placid now, so the area is crazy for it, but even when I lived on the New England coast I read as much as I possibly could about it.

What is the word on TV ratings? Any idea?

(And, yes, I understand that in some places Daytona's gonna be more important than anything else)

That's the difference right there. I'm in an agricultural community. Nearest snow is around Yosemite and nearest ice rink is about 40 miles away. Plus, too, there's always the local push ... and we're in the last week of regular season basketball, the first week of soccer playoffs and divisionals in wrestling are this weekend.

Summer Olympics are a different animal though. Outside of youth baseball and the Saturday Night races at the fairgrounds, not much going on. Plus, I'm thinking more people can identify with athletes in swimming, track and field, basketball, ect., than, say, four-man bobsled (and don't even get me started on figure skating).

 

[Stitch]

It seems that if you are a big enough paper to run a lot of Olympics stories, you're a big enough paper to pony up for Premium.

 

[SF_Express]

We are "counterprogramming" for the Olympics, making a fairly quiet and less-stress Games for us. We have to get the basics, and play them up as necessary, but generally, this is just another event for us -- a good thing.

We're getting everything we need from MegaSports, by the way. I don't know how that relates to this other thing.

 

[BTExpress]

Once upon a time we had an "Olympics desk" which consisted of a designer, an Olympics editor and another 1-2 copy editors.

Now it's little more than "Has the module from Chicago arrived yet?"

 

[daveevansedge]

It seems that if you are a big enough paper to run a lot of Olympics stories, you're a big enough paper to pony up for Premium.

I don't disagree at all, Stitch. But we're not talking about a lot of stories. We're talking about two, perhaps three.

I go back to what AP provided on yesterday's budget for non-premium tier subscribers: A luge feature on all the questions still surrounding the Georgian's death (only a couple grafs of this story touched on the actual luge results); a luge commentary from John Leicester; and a roundup. Two of the three stories we're allowed to use are on luge, and they're not even results stories? Really?

There was not a single "gamer" on the regular portion of the digest, and I think that's ridiculous. I've got no problem with features/columns/in-depths/etc. being on the premium tier. But give me two, maybe three gamers to work with, just to jazz it up a little bit, along with the roundup. I don't think that's asking too much of AP.