Ask AP

[Inky_Wretch]

Saw this on the wire and thought it was an unusual move by AP. Has potential, if the AP editors don't shy away from difficult questions about the journalism business.

The Associated Press wants to answer your nagging questions about the news. So ask!
AP Photo GFX521
By The Associated Press
Does the news ever leave you wanting more?
Do you read about world events online and wish you could click on a Tell Me More button? Do you watch newscasts, read blogs and download news podcasts, only to end up frustrated by a question that’s left ringing in your head?
Here’s your chance to get some answers from the people who really know the news: journalists at the world’s largest newsgathering organization.
Introducing “Ask AP,” a Q&A column where The Associated Press answers your questions about the news — anything from “What’s a subprime mortgage?” to “What ever happened to Linda Tripp?” to “How does a reporter prepare to be embedded with the military in Iraq?”
AP editors will choose some of the questions sent in by readers like you and get answers from AP reporters and editors — the people who spend their days covering the very issues you’re curious about.
So send your questions to newsquestions(at)ap.org, with “Ask AP” in the subject line. Then keep an eye out for installments of the new Q&A column, where you’ll finally get some answers.

 

[Rockbottom]

Hey, AP ... Why do y'all suck so much?

Much love,

RB

 

[fishwrapper]

RB,
I'm guessing never worked for AP?
How much wire copy you running, these days?

 

[JayFarrar]

That assumes member papers will run the Q&A column.
My questions for the AP:
• How much of your news report and not just national, but state-by-state, is derived from member papers?
• Do those member papers receive any form of financial compensation for their efforts, including breaks in what they pay for from the AP?
• What was your revenue for the past fiscal year?
• What your expenses?
• How much of your annual revenue comes from subscription fees from online web sites?
• How many of those online sites contribute to the news report?
• Are the AP's efforts in the online world damaging the financial aspect of the print business?
• How can you claim to be a co-op if a large chunk of your fees-paying members don't contribute to the report?

That's all for now, I'll think of more later.

 

[slappy4428]

That assumes member papers will run the Q&A column.
My questions for the AP:
• How much of your news report and not just national, but state-by-state, is derived from member papers?
• Do those member papers receive any form of financial compensation for their efforts, including breaks in what they pay for from the AP?
• What was your revenue for the past fiscal year?
• What your expenses?
• How much of your annual revenue comes from subscription fees from online web sites?
• How many of those online sites contribute to the news report?
• Are the AP's efforts in the online world damaging the financial aspect of the print business?
• How can you claim to be a co-op if a large chunk of your fees-paying members don't contribute to the report?

That's all for now, I'll think of more later.

I won't be holding my breath for those answers

 

[forever_town]

Hey, AP ... Why do y'all suck so much?

Much love,

RB

Damn. Beat me to it.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

Hey, AP ... Why do y'all suck so much?

Much love,

RB

Because they know you have no real alternative. Things were different when UPI was in business and running at full speed.

 

[fishwrapper]

Oh, c'mon guys.
It's always easy to blame. But take a look. The expectation of coverage now, and 20 years ago is different.
The member papers are the same, but the contribution from the members -- because of lack of resources and layoffs -- diminished.
It is a news organization that covers the world, an aggregate of information from the presidential election to PBA agate out of Reno, Nev. Stories. Photographs. Graphics. These days, multimedia.
A behemoth of grand proportions.
I see you guys on here complain about the timeliness of rodeo agate, some nights. At that same time, there are Associated Press correspondents and editors confirming everything from MLB trade rumors to dead marines and soldiers.
I see the Sports sections. Most years judge them come this time of year.
For a vast majority of papers, if you eliminated AP, you could do the same with the paper.
The countless sections I see -- and these are the APSE entries -- have four or five story covers. Local centerpiece, with AP stories in formation around the centerpiece. One after another. One after another.
You see, wire copy is no longer filler. It's the meat.
So, do you think your chain or publisher makes money off the Associated Press?
You think that tiered service contract isn't worth it? Rhetorical, but you see point.

(Granted, there are outside contracts signed by the AP in the last couple of years that legitimately can be disputed. But, level of service is tough to argue if one looks past their own 50k circulation newspaper).

 

[The Commish]

At least everyone now has an e-mail address to use when they want to know where a box score or an optional is.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Hey, AP:

Who thought this was a good headline?

Wallace had 23 points, 15 rebounds in Pistons’ 90-80 win over Spurs

 

[buckweaver]

Oh, c'mon guys.
It's always easy to blame. But take a look. The expectation of coverage now, and 20 years ago is different.
The member papers are the same, but the contribution from the members -- because of lack of resources and layoffs -- diminished.
It is a news organization that covers the world, an aggregate of information from the presidential election to PBA agate out of Reno, Nev. Stories. Photographs. Graphics. These days, multimedia.
A behemoth of grand proportions.
I see you guys on here complain about the timeliness of rodeo agate, some nights. At that same time, there are Associated Press correspondents and editors confirming everything from MLB trade rumors to dead marines and soldiers.
I see the Sports sections. Most years judge them come this time of year.
For a vast majority of papers, if you eliminated AP, you could do the same with the paper.
The countless sections I see -- and these are the APSE entries -- have four or five story covers. Local centerpiece, with AP stories in formation around the centerpiece. One after another. One after another.
You see, wire copy is no longer filler. It's the meat.
So, do you think your chain or publisher makes money off the Associated Press?
You think that tiered service contract isn't worth it? Rhetorical, but you see point.

(Granted, there are outside contracts signed by the AP in the last couple of years that legitimately can be disputed. But, level of service is tough to argue if one looks past their own 50k circulation newspaper).

Well said.

AP's a life-saver for most papers.

 

[HejiraHenry]

Oh, c'mon guys.
It's always easy to blame. But take a look. The expectation of coverage now, and 20 years ago is different.
The member papers are the same, but the contribution from the members -- because of lack of resources and layoffs -- diminished.
It is a news organization that covers the world, an aggregate of information from the presidential election to PBA agate out of Reno, Nev. Stories. Photographs. Graphics. These days, multimedia.
A behemoth of grand proportions.
I see you guys on here complain about the timeliness of rodeo agate, some nights. At that same time, there are Associated Press correspondents and editors confirming everything from MLB trade rumors to dead marines and soldiers.
I see the Sports sections. Most years judge them come this time of year.
For a vast majority of papers, if you eliminated AP, you could do the same with the paper.
The countless sections I see -- and these are the APSE entries -- have four or five story covers. Local centerpiece, with AP stories in formation around the centerpiece. One after another. One after another.
You see, wire copy is no longer filler. It's the meat.
So, do you think your chain or publisher makes money off the Associated Press?
You think that tiered service contract isn't worth it? Rhetorical, but you see point.

(Granted, there are outside contracts signed by the AP in the last couple of years that legitimately can be disputed. But, level of service is tough to argue if one looks past their own 50k circulation newspaper).

Well said.

AP's a life-saver for most papers.

Agreed, by the way.

But I would add that I think it's probably pas time that some regional affiliations above and beyond the AP might serve a good purpose.

 

[buckweaver]

But I would add that I think it's probably pas time that some regional affiliations above and beyond the AP might serve a good purpose.

That's certainly a good idea, but ...

Any regional "wire service" would be even more dependent on member papers than the current AP. And with member papers slashing and burning resources every week, there would be no hope for that type of upstart organization to succeed in this climate.

 

[fishwrapper]

As we know, "boots on the ground" is expensive. That's our problem.
And, we already have revenue. How is someone going to do it without positive cashflow?
It would die before it started.

 

[sportsnut]

If I am not mistaken member papers are forced to let the AP run there stories though the contract your paper has with the AP. Atleast that's what the contract my old sports paper had with the AP.

They did not get a percentage of the membership prize cut or anything like that.

But give it a week or two and I bet the AP will shut down this little project because they get to many emails and phone calls that have already answered or are just rude.

 

[HejiraHenry]

But I would add that I think it's probably pas time that some regional affiliations above and beyond the AP might serve a good purpose.

That's certainly a good idea, but ...

Any regional "wire service" would be even more dependent on member papers than the current AP. And with member papers slashing and burning resources every week, there would be no hope for that type of upstart organization to succeed in this climate.

Well, we know in a couple of markets (Ohio?) that papers are swapping NFL coverage or some such.

 

[Norman Stansfield]

Dear AP,

Why are the people that answer the phones in NYC such dicks?

Thanks,

NS

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

<i>The expectation of coverage now, and 20 years ago is different.</i>

I'm not sure that's true, and I'm positive that the mechanics of generating coverage are much easier today. Go back 25 years and every freaking MLB game was being dictated to NY -- basic story, box score and how the runs scored. The lead had to be in after seven innings so the desk would have enough time to work with it. The box and runs needed constant updating. The person covering the game had no way to access the edited story, so the desk would wind up editing again for the optional. They were also filing separate stories for PMs papers in those days, which they aren't now.

The frenzy was pretty much the same on college football Saturdays and NFL Sundays.

These days AP staffers file a lead through the system and get it back with edits made. It's much smoother, much less time consuming and prone to far fewer inaccuracies.

Not sure why you're mingling the rodeo agate and dead soldiers. Unless there's a disaster the proportion of 9/11, the AP news and sports desks aren't going to be working the same side of the street much.

 

[wickedwritah]

Thanks for sharing that, Smasher. It's interesting to read how the mechanics of it have changed.

 

[Bob Cook]

I'll defend the AP here, as a former temp there (and as one who got his start in the dying days of UPI's Indianapolis bureau), as one married to a former 10-year vet there (including being a "****" in NYC), and as one whose oldest son has an AP sports writer for his godmother:

Everyone tends to think the wire has some massive desk going on, but in most cases where you're calling is more thinly staffed than the smallest huckleberry paper. It's cooperative, so members own the AP, and provide it with copy. The AP, whatever its sins, has been caught in the conundrum of its newspaper members demanding more to fill space, yet demanding to pay less for it. I know for years the AP has looked at other sources of income because of this. The AP's move toward online isn't a reflection of it killing newspapers, but of an attempt to stop the opposite from happening.

Meanwhile, you have the vagaries of the operation itself. Sometimes stringers call in late -- or don't call in at all. Sometimes, on the state desks, you have people who previously didn't do sports a day in their lives responsible for writing and editing copy, and there are probably only two or three of them (or fewer) to begin with working everything else for the night, as well. (Having to do sports was the biggest shock to the system for my wife when she first started at the AP.)

Not to say that every wire staffer is a hard-working person doing his or her best to move great quickly against impossible odds. As with any organization, there are some people who are lazy or just don't get it. But if you wonder why the people you call are cranky, it might be because you're demanding a box score at the same time someone else is demanding a write-up on a fatal fire, while a broadcaster is calling in a story, etc. I would recommend a little understanding when you call and ask for something. Then if the person is a jerk about it, you can feel rightfully peeved.