So, AP ...

[spnited]

Sorry, SC. A lead moved on every one of those games. Grab 'em, put 'em together, make a roundup. Takes 10 minutes, or less time that it took wisp to logon here and post twice, 13 minutes apart.
We don't have time to wait for capsules when we can do it ourselves faster.

Yea, so why pay AP 30K a month? I can just get the capsules off ESPN. They're up there faster anyway.

We pay for AP to provide content. When they don't do it in a timely manner, we have the right to *****, whether you like it or not.

They provide the content... there was a lede moved on all those games.
If you want to wait for capsules, then you wait until nogh games have ended for someone to put capsule together.
Or, as I said, you grab each lede as is moves, take a couple graphs each and make your own roundup.

 

[JackReacher]

Sorry, SC. A lead moved on every one of those games. Grab 'em, put 'em together, make a roundup. Takes 10 minutes, or less time that it took wisp to logon here and post twice, 13 minutes apart.
We don't have time to wait for capsules when we can do it ourselves faster.

Yea, so why pay AP 30K a month? I can just get the capsules off ESPN. They're up there faster anyway.

We pay for AP to provide content. When they don't do it in a timely manner, we have the right to *****, whether you like it or not.

They provide the content... there was a lede moved on all those games.
If you want to wait for capsules, then you wait until nogh games have ended for someone to put capsule together.
Or, as I said, you grab each lede as is moves, take a couple graphs each and make your own roundup.

Yeah. I always thought that was the easiest way to do things. Beat the hell out of waiting around and formatting a 15- or 20-inch roundup right on deadline.

 

[SCEditor]

Timeliness is just one of the issues. I'm more irritated with all the dirty copy that's slipping through. The quality of AP copy has taken a significant hit in recent years. Same can be said about our state AP's customer service.

You have customer service in your state? Every time I dial our state's AP on deadline, I get an asshat in Atlanta who has no idea what day of the week it is. In the 10 times I've called AP in the last year for something or to check something, I've had one helpful person answer the phone. It was miraculous.

 

[Football_Bat]

The Angels-Rangers game ended at 10:22 p.m.

The optional did not move until 12:02 a.m. I waited until the last possible moment for it and then I had to ship pages (pages plural because I had accounted for jump space).

AP can eat a hot, steaming bowl of dicks.

Maybe you should email the writer and tell him to speed it up. Or just plan for the worst when there are night games.

I know people that work on the AP desk, and I don't think I'd describe their mien as just dicking around to screw over Football Bat and his capsules.

Not a capsule, a full gamer.

And an hour and forty minutes to turn in a 400-word optional by an AP staff writer (Stephen Hawkins in this case) is inexcusable. The game couldn't have been that hard to write. Texas led from the start, and Marlon Byrd's big night was a ready-made angle.

 

[BTExpress]

Grab 'em, put 'em together, make a roundup.

Been doing it that way for 26 years --- at least until this year, when Tribune "modules" took care of the roundups (See a mistake? Too bad! Can't fix it.).

The only reason I can ever see for using capsules is if you are slammed all night and have to begin putting your roundup together 5 minutes before deadline.

 

[SF_Express]

Grab 'em, put 'em together, make a roundup.

Been doing it that way for 26 years --- at least until this year, when Tribune "modules" took care of the roundups (See a mistake? Too bad! Can't fix it.).

The only reason I can ever see for using capsules is if you are slammed all night and have to begin putting your roundup together 5 minutes before deadline.

I'll admit, Tribune modules are making it easier for me to read the paper. I just skip 'em all.

With all respect to the national notes guys who are showing up in my local Sunday sports section instead of guys from this paper, sorry; that's just not part of the Sunday rotation anymore. And not a knock on those national guys, just not my interest.

 

[wisportswriter]

Perhaps instead of spending his time coming here and whining about AP's lack of capsules. wisp could have used that time to take the gamers as they came in (not the optionals) and put together his own roundup.
We do it every night...without every waiting for the capsules.

Exactly what I wrote, and exactly what I did. Thanks for the idea, though.

I simply prefer the capsules - less editing - and rare is the night at least a first run hasn't moved by midnight Central.
I was more expressing surprise - even asked the question to see if other people saw the same thing, wondering if it was just an issue with our wire. And I had a comfortable amount of time to do so.

Thanks for your concern, though. It's touching.

 

[SF_Express]

Wis, your Earl Warren quote certainly isn't as true today as it was in 1968.

 

[wisportswriter]

You know, I've had that same thought, sadly. Maybe it's time for a change.

 

[lone star scribe]

Seriously, if you're doing a roundup, grab the ledes or even the AP News Now ledes and edit your own capsules. You know the capsules move later, and usually AP waits to send several together. So you're playing with fire if you delay like that. Only time I use capsules is for day games.

 

[duckncover]

Among the things I don't miss about playing newspaper: Refreshing the wire every 10 seconds to build my roundup.

 

[wisportswriter]

lone star: Maybe it's because our deadline is much later than most a.m. dailies (press doesn't roll until 1 a.m.), but I wait for the capsules almost every single night, and so, I believe, do my colleagues.

If you've got the time, and we do, it's just quicker/less editing. So I prefer the capsules, and 99 percent of the time it's no problem waiting for them.

 

[BTExpress]

If you've got the time, and we do, it's just quicker/less editing. So I prefer the capsules, and 99 percent of the time it's no problem waiting for them.

IMO, if you've got the time, that's all the more reason to create a unique roundup from the game stories. Many times a unique fact or quote is buried in the game stories that will give the reader more than the "Cole Hamels pitched 7 strong innings, and Ryan Howard hit his 38th home run . . . " that he can already get from the box score.

 

[wisportswriter]

I should clarify. What I mean by "we have the time," is we have a later press start than the average bear, so we don't have to start tackling the roundups at 9 p.m. just to get them in the paper.

That doesn't mean that, from 9-11 p.m., we're sitting around playing canasta. Pushing off the capsules enables us to perform one of our other many duties.

 

[spnited]

Perhaps instead of spending his time coming here and whining about AP's lack of capsules. wisp could have used that time to take the gamers as they came in (not the optionals) and put together his own roundup.
We do it every night...without every waiting for the capsules.

Exactly what I wrote, and exactly what I did. Thanks for the idea, though.

I simply prefer the capsules - less editing - and rare is the night at least a first run hasn't moved by midnight Central.
I was more expressing surprise - even asked the question to see if other people saw the same thing, wondering if it was just an issue with our wire. And I had a comfortable amount of time to do so.

Thanks for your concern, though. It's touching.

Not exactly what youo wrote:

I'll just do my own AL capsules tonight, game-by-game?
(11:47 Central)

You were bitching about it and you know it. You could have been done by 11:45 if you grabbed the ledes as they moved.

 

[Football_Bat]

This time around, I didn't even wait for the optional of the glorious Rangers victory. Even though the game ended at the same time as last night. I capitulated and just let the AP give our readers the direct FU.

 

[wisportswriter]

Nice selective use of quoting, Mr. Rove. Of course, there's also this nugget.

Now midnight Central and not even a first run of capsules.
Is this just my wire?

I didn't say I wasn't bitching at all. Sure, I was a little. I'm probably the first one in the business to ever do that, right?
But ... again ... I was more trying to determine whether this was going on just on our wire or everywhere else.
Either way, I'm not really concerned what you think of me, and nobody else seems to give a hoot about this particular angle in this thread (go figure), so I'll move on now.

 

[sg86]

I understand how relatively easy it is to make your own roundup, hell I even do it myself, but why should he have to do some other guy's job on top of his own?

His paper pays AP. Not the other way around. If their job is to get the capsules out in a timely manner, then that's their job. Excuses be damned.

 

[WS]

I understand how relatively easy it is to make your own roundup, hell I even do it myself, but why should he have to do some other guy's job on top of his own?

His paper pays AP. Not the other way around. If their job is to get the capsules out in a timely manner, then that's their job. Excuses be damned.

exactly. No reason a first roundup shouldn't be out by 10 p.m. (I'm in central time), and an updated one an hour later.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Timeliness is just one of the issues. I'm more irritated with all the dirty copy that's slipping through. The quality of AP copy has taken a significant hit in recent years. Same can be said about our state AP's customer service.

You have customer service in your state? Every time I dial our state's AP on deadline, I get an asshat in Atlanta who has no idea what day of the week it is. In the 10 times I've called AP in the last year for something or to check something, I've had one helpful person answer the phone. It was miraculous.

That's strange. The occasional time I needed something from AP, Jeffrey Collins usually answered in Columbia and couldn't have been nicer or more helpful. Perhaps things have taken a dive into the swamp since ...