Does AP have to be better?

[Cadet]

We may have discussed this in the depths of the JTO threads, but here's my question:

With so many papers slashing staff and relying on wire coverage, does The Associated Press bear the burden of having to be better? Must they be as selective in hiring as a major metro? Must they compete for stud writers and editors with news outlets? Must they increase not only the quality of the product but also the quantity?

Sure, what we hear from the brass these days is "Local! Local!" but what often ends up happening is a late hole gets plugged with wire copy, or a paper decides not to cover a team on the road and use wire, or a departing writer (in any section - sports, news, features) is not replaced and wire fills that void.

I've got no connections to AP, so I don't know: Is this a consideration? Is this talked about by AP brass? Have newspaper editors called upon the AP to produce more or better content?

 

[FileNotFound]

Newspapers are asking AP to be better at the same time they are asking AP to cut its prices.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003705104

Which I guess shouldn't surprise me.

 

[Smasher_Sloan]

I'm told the local AP office just had its stringer budget cut significantly.

 

[cranberry]

Keep in mind that AP is a cooperative of newspaper members and its board reflects the newspaper industry. My (somewhat biased) personal experience is that the AP already competes at a very high level for talent. Very few newspapers pay as well, so good people tend to gravitate to AP.

If newspapers insist on operating with skeleton crews it would make sense for the cooperative to raise rates and hire even more good staffers at the local bureaus, which are typically understaffed considering the report they're expected to generate each day.

If newspapers demand cuts in rates at the same time they're cutting their own staffs, it would seem very short-sighted -- a recipe for a downward spiral. But that's just me. Maybe all the AP needs is a memo to all staffers, exhorting them to think outside the box and do more with less.

 

[PHINJ]

More newspapers should look at eliminating AP altogether. It's a big expense and adds zero "unique" content.

 

[PHINJ]

It can be done, and I think it will be.

 

[PHINJ]

We're getting rid of AP, and we won't miss it at all. I've been at a paper that relied almost entirely on wire copy, and we got rid of AP there and still survived (in fact, circulation went up during that period).

 

[forever_town]

Then, the biggest section any paper will have will be 8 pages. Readers already complain that the sections are too thin and there's not enough news in them. AP serves a valuable purpose.

I've never met a reader who has complained about papers being too thin. I have heard the opposite.

Then again, one of my sources told me he noticed how much less wire my pub has run since I started there.

The only way I could see papers eliminating wire is if they have enough staff or student writers picking up where wire copy leaves off. My paper can mostly do so because we're within a few minutes of a major university with a big time J program. Even so, I still occasionally have to run a wire story. Although sometimes, I run stories that are compelling enough where I want to.

Then again, I'm at a local weekly. If it were a daily, it'd be a vastly different story.

 

[PHINJ]

I stand by mine, too. AP is a big expense and mostly serves as filler (readers recognize that, too).

 

[slappy4428]

I stand by mine, too. AP is a big expense and mostly serves as filler (readers recognize that, too).

However, in a time when newspapers cut their own local payroll, AP becomes a necessity.

 

[PHINJ]

I think we should reexamine that belief and turn it on its head. If AP is a necessity than we are doing something wrong.

If you can save your local columnist of 32 years, two sports writers covering local colleges and three desk people, I say that's worth a hell of a lot more to your readers than wire copy that they can read anywhere else.

 

[Stitch]

How much does AP cost for a paper with a circ. of 100K? It amazes me that the suburban paper in my neck of the woods pays for AP when it neglects so many local stories that could be filled by hiring four or five more reporters fresh out of school.

 

[PHINJ]

I'll have to go check but when we got rid of AP at the place I used to work, it cost $30,000 per month.

 

[deskslave]

I stand by mine, too. AP is a big expense and mostly serves as filler (readers recognize that, too).

I wish you all the best on Nov. 4. I also wish you nothing but good tidings the next time there's a terror attack in New York, or when we declare war on Iran, or when the pro team down the road a ways gets to the World Series.

With that said, I think a little less of AP for this pharmaceuticals-in-water series they've been running.

 

[sportsnut]

I'll have to go check but when we got rid of AP at the place I used to work, it cost $30,000 per month.

****, are you serious that your paper pays the AP $30.000 a month? So you could hire 12 more writers at 30.000 a year or as many as 20 reporters to cover your local market daily for what your paying the AP.

We have a paper in my city that has 89% AP copy and a handful of real stories that are written by the newspaper's own staff. The sad thing is when they use AP copy for news and sports that is happening in the city not on the road.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

More newspapers should look at eliminating AP altogether. It's a big expense and adds zero "unique" content.

I stand by mine, too. AP is a big expense and mostly serves as filler (readers recognize that, too).

Oh, blow it out your ass sideways. I've always suspected that you are, in fact, a foof. On this thread, you've proven it.

Readers read newspapers for ... well, news. And unless you're working for the NY Times, then your paper can't cover every national and international news story — for instance, Iran-Contra, presidential elections, both World Trade Center bombings, the economy, Watergate, big-time college and professional sports, the Bay of Pigs, entertainment, the war on terror, Darfur, Rwanda (back in the day), the Prague Spring, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tiananmen Square, bombing Libya, World War II, and so on — without wire copy to provide that news.

You want to talk about wire copy being filler? Without wire content, you're down to using chamber-of-commerce handouts to fill the pages — and you can bet your sweet bippy that your readers will know that's filler and will not hesitate to call you on it. The local hot-rod club needing entries for its upcoming car show is not newsworthy but that's what you'll be running, and not buried in the calendar briefs.

Enjoy your journey into irrelevancy.

 

[playthrough]

We're getting rid of AP, and we won't miss it at all. I've been at a paper that relied almost entirely on wire copy, and we got rid of AP there and still survived (in fact, circulation went up during that period).

You've got some wire service, right? Where the heck do you get agate from?

 

[Stone Cane]

Oh, blow it out your ass sideways. I've always suspected that you are, in fact, a foof. On this thread, you've proven it.

i applaud the correct usage of foof

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Oh, blow it out your ass sideways. I've always suspected that you are, in fact, a foof. On this thread, you've proven it.

i applaud the correct usage of foof

He can get his agate here:

http://www.thefoofstore.com/

 

[PHINJ]

More newspapers should look at eliminating AP altogether. It's a big expense and adds zero "unique" content.

I stand by mine, too. AP is a big expense and mostly serves as filler (readers recognize that, too).

Oh, blow it out your ass sideways. I've always suspected that you are, in fact, a foof. On this thread, you've proven it.

Readers read newspapers for ... well, news. And unless you're working for the NY Times, then your paper can't cover every national and international news story — for instance, Iran-Contra, presidential elections, both World Trade Center bombings, the economy, Watergate, big-time college and professional sports, the Bay of Pigs, entertainment, the war on terror, Darfur, Rwanda (back in the day), the Prague Spring, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Tiananmen Square, bombing Libya, World War II, and so on — without wire copy to provide that news.

You want to talk about wire copy being filler? Without wire content, you're down to using chamber-of-commerce handouts to fill the pages — and you can bet your sweet bippy that your readers will know that's filler and will not hesitate to call you on it. The local hot-rod club needing entries for its upcoming car show is not newsworthy but that's what you'll be running, and not buried in the calendar briefs.

Enjoy your journey into irrelevancy.

Well there are other wire services, but regardless, relying more and more on wire copy isn't serving your readers better. In an age when people are turning away from newspapers precisely because it doesn't give them enough unique content we should...give them less unique content?

To be frank I'd rather run the local hot-rod club than a wire story anyway, and your readers would rather read it, too.

The fallacy, of course, is thinking that those jobs are going to be saved simply by scrapping the wire.

The fact is: those jobs are being killed regardless. And it's just going to make it that much harder to fill the section if you don't have the wire, in addition to fewer local reporters.

I don't know if it's a fallacy or not. Has it been tried? We tried it and not a single person thought it could work. But it did. And we did this with a staff of 9 people.

The key word here is "fill." Don't fill the paper, put out news that's worthy of being published. If that means your section is 4 pages instead of 12, then so be it. That's another five jobs saved in newsprint. Stop giving people irrelevant/redundant information they already get elsewhere.