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April 7, 2005

Dear AP Sounding Board,

Our query seeking suggestions to improve navigational aids for AP DataStream circuits drew several interesting suggestions. Plucked from the six responses were these ideas to help in search and retrieval of prime stories, and how they stand in AP planning.

— add a category code for technology news and special designation for columns (both are under consideration);

— transmit wire advisories to alert members when "a-caliber" stories carry a different code, such as "e" for entertainment (AP's current practice, particularly for obituaries);

— cluster stories by topics, shared category codes and separate digests — e.g., health related or personal finance related. (AP's database delivery system now in development will focus on such issues);

— create a unique code for stories that appeal to young adult readers (AP's weekday "BC-Under 35, Advisory" lists an array of such stories, but category codes vary and a unique code may be possible);

— create an "advance wire" for stories sent ahead of release dates (advancers are already transmitted with b- file numbers and date for use).

Your full responses are below. Thanks for providing very useful feedback.

— David Minthorn

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

Among the Readership Institute's initiatives to improve the navigation of newspapers is a recommendation to cluster stories by topic and to use topical labels when/where applicable. AP could help newspapers leverage this initiative by more aggressively labeling stories with the category codes.

I also encourage AP to develop topical story budgets or advisories. These occasional budgets or advisories throughout the day would list, for example, all of the health-related stories, or personal finance stories, and so forth. This would help editors know what's available.

Certainly, we still need the "mother" list that constitutes AP's daily news budget, but topical advisories would be helpful. Newsrooms work on multiple sections concurrently throughout the day. Editors are looking for the topically relevant stories to build advance pages and early sections.

AP's coding should also take into consideration readership demographics — young adult readers in particular. Can these stories have a unique code so that an editor could quickly search the wire for the day's selections of content the AP has earmarked?

Jake Sherlock, night editor, Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne:

We're happy with things as they are regarding this question.

Karen Peterson, senior editor, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.:

Wire editors said the paper's Quickwire software program has difficulty locating AP copy — in some cases because two-word AP slugs — e.g., Pope-Health — were rendered as one word — e.g., popehealth.

— Also, a couple of times the slug listed on the budget has not been the same as the slug on the story. So I search for a couple of hours, think the story hasn't moved, and finally find it with a text search. The new Quickwire is case sensitive, which also causes problems. It would be better if it weren't case sensitive and either way you typed it, the story would come up.

— If stories might be on different wires (news and entertainment, for example) it would be helpful if the AP would run an advisory on the one that it isn't on, directing us to where to find it. This is especially true when stories we might run in the A Section are on the entertainment and political wires. We don't normally watch those wires closely, so if we need stories that are there, we might miss them.

— Don't know that we need additonal help from AP; what we need is help from our software. It's much more difficult to search in Quickwire that it used to be, and I hope that our new software will solve that.

— I'm satisfied with AP's slugs.

(AP's response: Editors wouldn't run the two words together like "PopeHealth" or "PopeMedical." Must be a software thing. In any case, the slug on the AP story shouldn't deviate from the slug name written on the AP budget. If there's a change, we'd try to move a floating advisory pointing out the new slug, or saying X stands for Y listed on the budget.

(Good point about floating advisories to point out stories of interest to more than one of your desks — such as items with "e" for entertainment category codes also relevant for section A. On Feb. 21, for example, we sent this advisory to alert member editors reading the general interest DataStream circuit:

^BC-Obit-DeeAdvisory<

EDITORS:

Please note that BC-Obit-Dee, on the death of Sandra Dee, has been sent with an entertainment category code.

The AP

David Hylton, news editor, The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va.:

Quoting copy editor Margaret Wimmer: I honestly do not have any problems finding things on AP. I feel they are very clear when labeling the stories and advisories. Their photo and graphic system could be better: AP photos planned never helps me. It is a guessing game at that point. But as to their stories, I find everything I need and more with AP, either through ACT or through YourAP. Finding advance stories that I save for the weekend are just as easy to find. I normally stumble upon them throughout the week when I am cursing the wire, so maybe there could be an advance wire. But other than that, AP is easy to use.

Bill Betterton, news editor, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson:

I'd like to see a category code for technology news. I suspect the amount of news in that category will only increase. I think there should be special designations for columns, too.

Phil Freedman, news editor, The News Journal, Wilmington, Del.:

I talked with other newsroom managers and users involved in processing AP copy. We have very few problems navigating AP wire. Stories are slugged as budgeted and move about when you folks say they will.

As for searching, our parameters are already more specific than what AP offers. Plus, we can easily search by topic, person, key word, geography, anything we want.

We agree that anything done to improve navigation or subdivide category codes would have little or no impact here.

Elaborating on the paper's use of Quickwire, he added:

We have some systemside searches (national, international, business, entertainment, etc.), plus we can set up personal queries (national league east long boxes, for example). We may or may not filter by wire service, usually we do not. We also have the option of a short list, where we see only slugs, but more per page. Or we can do the long view, which gives us about 25 characters past the slug.

Dave Minthorn, manager, AP News Administration, coordinates the questions and answers. Newspaper editors wishing to suggest a topic can send an e-mail to Minthorn at dminthorn@ap.org.

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