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Feb. 11, 2004

Dear AP Sounding Board:

Does your newspaper routinely share top stories with The AP?

In the first query posed by the APME Sounding Board itself, editors address issues about giving news and photos to other AP members, credits and delaying news on Web sites to preserve exclusivity.

APME's multi-part query on member sharing of stories and photos via the AP generated nine responses from the Sounding Board.

Your replies underlined that sharing is a paramount issue across the news media landscape. The mutual benefits are many, but there are also sore points.

Sounding Board members closely watch how their news and photo contributions to the AP cooperative are used in both wire reports and in versions printed by competitors. Not everyone is satisfied with the crediting for member material. On whether AP gives proper credit to members, five said "yes," two said "no" and two said crediting should be improved.

Several praised AP state bureaus for acknowledging the newspaper source in the state wire pickup, but said that credit is often dropped from the DataStream version circulated nationally. Board members say they routinely offer spot news to AP state bureaus after it's processed for the newspaper. Some said they tip the AP to breaking news. Others said AP should actively seek more news from members to be shared all around.

To preserve exclusivity as long as possible, seven Sounding Board members said they delay posting a Web version of a scoop until after their newspapers are in print. This shows the growing role of — and concerns about — online distribution of news.

Your contributions include ample suggestions on how sharing can be made more profitable for everyone. Many thanks.

1. Does your newspaper routinely share its top stories with The AP?

— Louise Seals, managing editor, Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch:

Yes.

— Mark Bowden, executive editor, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa:

Yes. ... we are in the process of releasing our news budgets to the state AP to give the bureau an idea of all of the stories we're pursuing for tomorrow's paper with the expressed purpose of helping the state AP anticipate coverage it will receive from The Gazette.

— Steve Bell, managing editor, The Buffalo (N.Y.) News:

Yes, I e-mail stories daily that I think would enhance the state and/or national report. A bit different here in that we have a bureau. But I still send stories, and sometimes suggestions for membership enterprise.

— Tom O'Hara, managing editor, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio:

Yes.

— M.L. Schultze, managing editor, The Repository, Canton, Ohio:

Yes.

— Reed Eckhardt, managing editor, Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne, Wyo.:

Yes, we share all of our local report every evening aftert the paper goes to bed.

— Cindy McGowan, news editor, The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal:

Yes.

— Steve Sidlo, managing editor, Dayton (Ohio) Daily News:

Yes. We send an average of two to six stories each night via electronic carbon to the Cincinnati AP office. AP has a reporter in Dayton who has an office in our newsroom and he reviews our story budget every evening.

— Rick Everett, managing editor/news, The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.:

We send three or four stories each night to AP that we don't see on the AP-NJ digest.

2. If your newspaper does not routinely share, what are the reasons for your reluctance?

— Seals:

Would share projects earlier so AP would have more time to examine them — some are quite complex — but some other newspapers owned by our corporation are in competitive situations and do not want to see a version of our project in a competitor in the same cycle.

— Bowden:

Working on this issue with Iowa members over the years, I've concluded that many newspapers simply forget or don't have the time. The Iowa AP Bureau is doing a good job of "sweeping" Iowa newspaper online sites to coax members to submit stories that may have been overlooked by local editors.

— Schultze:

We do share, though we are constantly aware that we compete against three other daily newspapers in our circulation area.

— Everett:

These stories are sent after midnight, too late for other NJ newspapers to get in their a.m. editions. We don't want to share our exclusives with other papers in our market (there are more than 10 of them). We do like to hear AM radio and TV quoting our stories and hope it spurs more people to buy our newspaper.

3. When you do share with AP, is it on-cycle or after publication?

— Seals:

In cycle generally, but only after stories have been through our editing process.

— Bowden:

On-cycle.

— Bell:

If it's something breaking, I will call with a head's up so AP can respond. But generally it's after publication. We have a lot of newspaper and TV competition in our region and also in Albany.

— O'Hara:

On cycle.

— Schultze:

We share on cycle, but admittedly when it is less likely to be beneficial to our competition's deadlines.

— Eckhardt:

We often share legislative news and breaking news on-cycle.

— McGowan:

In the past, we mostly shared stories after publication, unless AP requested a particular story for on-cycle. We've now decided to share on-cycle. We've always shared photos on-cycle.

— Sidlo:

We usually send news stories around 10:15 p.m. every day. We send some sports stories and columns earlier, generally as soon as we get the material. AP also sometimes pulls breaking stories off of our Web site.

— Everett:

We send photos and stories on-cycle if the AP requests it.

4. If you don't share on-cycle, how could AP convince you to voluntarily contribute more breaking stories and photos to the cooperative?

— Bowden:

Years ago, there used to be a financial (small) incentive for member papers to share breaking news tips, etc. A small stipend was given and there was recognition in the Iowa AP Bureau's monthly newsletter to members. I think it's extremely important for the AP to offer continuing affirmation that the world's largest news-gathering organization is a cooperative, and the expectation is that members share their news.

— Schultze:

Give credit.

— Everett:

We send photos and stories on-cycle if the AP requests it.

5. In sharing your material, do you feel you get proper credit from the AP for stories or photos that are exclusive or involve significant enterprise?

— Seals:

No — particularly on some special issues such as the death penalty and corrections on which we were so far out in front of the competition that their version of the story several months later is the one that gets credited.

— Bowden:

This continues to be a sticky situation. Regardless of how the AP re-writes copy, especially copyrighted stories, the broadcasters tend to strip out the credits. Overall, the Iowa AP Bureau does a great job of giving credit where credit is due.

— Bell:

AP is generally good at crediting in-state. When it goes national, that tends to change for the worst.

— O'Hara:

We are satisfied 95 percent of the time.

— Schultze:

The definition of "significant enterprise" is terribly indefinite.

— Eckhardt:

No. This is a real bone of contention for us. I'm not clear what can be done, but too many of our stories appear in competitors under AP byline without any real recognition of source, especially on enterprise and bigger features.

— McGowan:

The crediting could be better on breaking news sent on-cycle.

— Sidlo:

Yes.

— Everett:

The AP always credits the Star-Ledger in the first version (we would like to see it higher), but drops the credit as soon as it can confirm it (fair enough). The photos shared on cycle usually get an AP credit in other publications. A lot of newspapers in our market change the reporting credit to "reportedly" or "according to a published report." This rankles us, but it's not the AP's fault.

6. If you believe current crediting is inadequate, what kind of guidelines would you like to see AP adopt for crediting member material?

— Seals:

Wider access to online archives for AP staffers would resolve some of the problem. Now, the newspaper in the region where the correspondent resides get the credit for a story, regardless of whether someone else wrote it earlier.

— Bowden:

There needs to be something developed — perhaps contractually with the broadcasters, for example — that demands that the credit is not stripped from stories. In the Internet era, newspapers must be more aggressive in protecting their brands, their copyrights. AP has a significant responsibility to see that these issues — newspaper's brand and copyright — are respected by all customers and clients of the AP news services.

— Bell:

Retain the credit. Add a sentence to such A-wire stories that say "Originally reported Tuesday in The Buffalo News..." (The) public editor column in The Times Sunday speaks to a lot of the feeling here about how the General Desk treats local — meaning not big-time national newspapers — papers in crediting stories.

— O'Hara:

The guidelines are fine. On occasion, the execution fails.

— Schultze:

We have and do, though extremely rarely when it is a direct competitor. We are more likely not to use the AP story and to go out and get our own.

— Eckhardt:

I think any story that cannot be eaily done thorugh normal channels deserves crediting.

— McGowan:

We think crediting should be considered for exclusive, breaking news.

— Sidlo:

We think the current crediting policy works fine.

— Everett:

The AP always credits the Star-Ledger in the first version (we would like to see it higher), but drops the credit as soon as it can confirm it (fair enough). The photos shared on cycle usually get an AP credit in other publications. A lot of newspapers in our market change the reporting credit to "reportedly" or "according to a published report." This rankles us, but it's not the AP's fault.

7. Would you run credits to other papers in your pages?

— Seals:

Yes — we have to remind some of our staffers that we want to give credit to whoever broke a story, but our policy is to give credit.

— Bowden:

Yes.

— Bell:

We do routinely. We also credit local TV and radio if they have an exclusive we can't match.

— O'Hara:

Yes.

— Schultze:

We have. We are extremely circumspect about using our competitor's material, even if it comes through AP, however.

— Eckhardt:

Yes, depending on the story.

— McGowan:

We currently do not.

— Sidlo:

Yes, we routinely credit other papers whenever it seems appropriate and important.

— Everett:

Yes, we try to credit other publications if they beat us to the draw.

8. Do you sometimes delay Web publication of stories to prevent them from being made available to competitors?

— Seals:

Yes, we delay posting some local stories on the web so local television news won't be alerted.

— Bowden:

Not on breaking news, but we don't post exclusives, enterprise, investigative reports on the Web until they've appeared in the paper.

— Bell:

Our Web site does not update. We put the morning paper on it at 9 a.m. and that's how it stands until 9 a.m. the next day.

— O'Hara:

Yes.

— Schultze:

Yes.

— Eckhardt:

Web stories also appear only after publication.

— McGowan:

No. We consider the Web part of the 24-hour news cycle, and we strive to put stories on it as soon as possible. Our competition is television and radio, and we regularly beat them using the Web.

— Sidlo:

Rarely, but we are increasingly sensitive to competition from other local news Web sites. If we put a breaking or enterprise story on our site, AP Ohio considers it fair game for moving on the wire. We've become much more aggressive in publishing throughout the day on our Web site, and we're aware that this can sometimes help our competitors. We're not sure yet whether we should worry much about it, but it's something we're watching.

— Everett:

Yes.

9. Any other thoughts or concerns about sharing stories with AP for wider distribution?

— Seals:

Given the stories that we see in the Virginian-Pilot that did not get to the AP in time to make our cycle — or that AP did not move in time for our cycle — we are not likely to make significant changes.

— Bowden:

I've been singing this song for a long, long time: Reinforce the importance of the cooperative — the news service is only as strong as it's weakest link. All members — from tiny newspapers to the national press — gain when the news is liberally shared on cycle. I'd suggest the national APME convention spend some time talking about the cooperative, addressing myths and misperceptions about contributing to the AP news stream.

— Bell:

... This is an age-old problem. The bureaus routinely give good credit to their members because they know them, the editors there and they have to deal with them tomorrow, too. The Washington bureau and the General Desk tend to see it more as competition and move as quickly as possible to omit member credit.

— O'Hara:

No.

— Schultze:

We have some very disparate opinions in our own newsroom. Some feel AP is a cooperative, and that a push for papers to get credit is contrary to that spirit. It erodes, they feel, the stability of AP. Personally, I think it makes sense for AP, when it sends out stories, to credit the primary authors of a story and composers of a photo, including their newspapers. The main reason is simply that it gives readers additional information with which to evaluate the story. Authorship, I think, is a part of credibility.

I think it also would encourage more papers to participate in a more timely manner. Papers are understandably disgruntled when they see competitors use their stories (via AP) to compete for their readers. Of course, it would remain up to individual papers if they want to edit out the credit line.

— Sidlo:

Generally it is in the interest of all member papers to have wide and quick distribution of stories, but local news Web sites seem to be changing the competitive landscape. As mentioned before, we haven't yet decided whether this is enough of an issue to impact how and when we post our Web stories. If it turns into a significant concern, I suppose we could ask that AP "out" or exclude local competitors from using certain stories on cycle.

— Everett:

In this market, the AP will never get papers to share their exclusives on cycle, but could get more spot news stories and photos by asking member papers.

Have a question the board should pose to AP? Send it to AP National Desk Editor David Minthorn at dminthorn@ap.org, who is coordinating the Sounding Board.

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