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July 19, 2005

Dear AP Sounding Board members,

An AP working group is examining ways to help members to identify and develop local angles for AP national stories. The group proposed several questions designed to pinpoint member needs and guide AP's planning for better localization. Pilot projects by selected bureaus and national tests of localization are envisioned as the next steps later this year.

The 18 responses "confirmed some hunches and found great enthusiasm from member editors for a localizing initiative," noted Ric Brack, assistant chief of bureau in Chicago, who is leading the AP-wide working group. He noted these trends from the survey:

— Members want to be advised early and often of such efforts. We received information about when advisories must move to be useful and got some ideas about how to advise. Advisories should be added to existing digests and e-mailed to key editors. Localization instructions should be included atop stories.

— Members don't expect us to do the localization for them, merely to give them early notice when stories they themselves could localize are coming, and to help them do it themselves by providing data, sources, ideas.

— The feedback also seems to highlight some problems, possibly to be addressed in another forum or by another committee, with our current system of advisories. They may not be deep enough or come early enough to be of use in some cases. And they may not be reaching the right people in member newsrooms.

Panelists were asked to comment on these issues:

— If AP were to identify a handful of stories each day that offer localization possibilities, who must be advised in your newsroom to ensure the possibilities are acted upon? Who in your newsroom would actually do the work of localizing?

— How early must such information be sent to be of use for daily use? Weekend use?

— Thinking about previous efforts to localize AP copy, what sorts of things would be most helpful to your newsroom: links to Web sites, lists on the wire or online, databases, etc.? Please be specific.

— Would you find it helpful for information on localization possibilities to be added to existing AP news digests, or would you prefer it handled in separate advisories? Would editors in your newsroom be interested in receiving e-mail advisories of daily and longer-term localization possibilities? Which editors?

— How much information would your newsroom need to get started on a localization project? (Sometimes, AP might identify localization possibilities before a story is done, for example. Or it might want to advise you early on enterprise that is still in the works).

The Sounding Board's full responses, in order of receipt:

— David Minthorn

Reed Eckhardt, managing editor, Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Cheyenne:

— Overall I think this is a great idea. Certainly Gannett uses it to good advantage, putting out large packages on Gannett News Service then providing a variety of options for localizing — everything from including or pointing to databases to providing ideas for sources, etc. This certainly would add value to the AP report, provided, of course, that the stories are provided far enough in advance (for weekends) or early enough in the day (for daily pieces). This is a great idea and I hope that AP will pursue it.

— Decisions to localize would be made by our assistant managing editor or by myself. Localizing itself would be done by whatever beat reporter that the story applies to or by our GA.

— Daily use, probably about the same time that the early news advisories are released. For weekends, Monday or Tuesday would be great, for bigger projects, even earlier would be helpful, like the week previous.

— Specific databases that could be searched would be helpful, like those provided by the census bureau. Web sites for background, lists of possible source, even a list of possible story ideas.

— I would like to see it both on the digests and separately. E-mail advisories also would be great, going to both the top editor and his assistant in my newsroom.

— Again, both would work for us. The earlier the better, given the size of our newsroom.

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

— Contact the Metro desk. 216-999-4825. Ask for Metro Editor Jean Dubail. Jean will delegate the chores like a soldier with a live grenade in his hands. Who would actually do the localizing would depend on what the story says. If it's a business story, Biz folks will do it. Sports, sports etec.

— The earlier the better. The better the story, the later you can send the material and still have us scramble to localize it. Late Thursday would be a sensible deadline for weekend material.

— Links to Web sites.

— 1. Put info on digests. 2. send wire advisories too. 3. e-mail advisories would be great. 4. I can send you a list of editors and their addresses if all this comes to pass.

— Yes, I would love to get a heads up even before the story is ready to send. The earlier we're alerted, the sooner we can determine if we want to invest time in it.

Rick Hall, managing editor, The Deseret News, Salt Lake City:

Like everyone else, we love to localize. Most good localization is done, oddly enough, locally. Hence, web site suggestions are helpful, but only as a starting place. Data base info is better. But, bottom line: to really localize a story, we need to talk to local people. And I don't think AP New York can really help with that. However, we welcome any and all additional info you can provide. As to how to provide that additional info: normal advisories are fine. E-mail is also helpful. And, as a general rule, earlier notification is always better.

Bill Rose, managing editor, The Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, Fla.:

— Ninety percent of the time that would be metro editor or the day slot on the metro desk. Metro desk reporters would do the stories.

— Earlier the better. Can be sent at any time, but after about 4 p.m., it becomes unlikely we will rush out to localize unless it's a significant story that promises to be a Local front story or a 1A story or a story we have been particularly interested in or a competitive story.

— See answer to question below. In addition, we'd love any links to information about the subject being reported.

— We'd rather have it on the news digests. The news editor and his assistant would get those.

— If it's before a story is done, we would need to know the premise of the story, a summary of who AP is talking to and what they might be saying, suggestions (if possible) of experts in our area, lists of websites or other sources to gain knowledge from to inform our reporting, and what the basic facts of the story are.

Dan Roherty, wire editor, The Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wis.:

— Managing and news editors would need to be informed primarily, as well as national and state wire editors. General assignment reporters would likely do the localizing or possibly desk editors if it was necessary when reporters were not available

— Early afternoon would be the likely deadline on this information for daily use and by Thursday for weekend use. (I defer to news editors on this)

— Web links and database information can get reporters to the sources quickly, and contact information can give us a start on who to call that can lead us to other sources.

— Separate advisories would probably be more noticeable than having them in budgets, although both would be preferrable. E-mail advisories would likely alert editors much quicker than monitoring the news wires for the information.

— Giving us a head-start on localization options before the report moves would be very helpful in getting our version of the story progressing in a timely manner.

Bill Betterton, assistant copy desk chief, Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, Ariz.:

— Our metro desk would be responsible for localizing any story.

— Daily information should be sent before 1 p.m. local time. Of course, earlier would be better because getting local officials can be hard. Weekend localization should be done by Wednesday.

— We often need lists showing where the state ranks in most stories. Links and databases are extremely important starting points to find out what the city or states's situations is beefore we contct officials to find out why.

— Yes. Our metro editors. All of them. If all of them are notified, then the appropriate editor can act.

— Again the earlier we know of a story that could use localization, the better.

Scott W. Angus, editor, The Janesville (Wis.) Gazette:

— Editor, wire editor and local editor should be advised. The local desk then would localize.

— We're a p.m., so we'd need it with the 5:30 a.m. news digest.

— Links to Web sites, lists in either place or databases would all be helpful. In most cases, we can find what we need pretty quickly without that help, but any assistance makes our job easier. The early advisory, though, would be most helpful.

— I think localization prospects would be fine in existing advisories — separate and singled out. E-mail advisories to editor and local editor would help, too.

— We don't need a lot of info — just the nut of the story and key findings. We can usually take it from there.

Ben Post, managing editor, The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.:

We often look for ways to localize AP and other wire-service stories. Our wire editor is alert to those opportunities and coordinates with the originating desks. The Kentucky AP bureau is located in our building (it's on the same floor as the newsroom), and we have a good relationship that includes occasional discussions on get local angles on larger stories. Having said that, there is an area in which more local coverage would be helpful, and that's news out of Washington. We have a Washington reporter, but often on important votes he must be pulled from other stories to gather reaction from our congressional delegation. And "our" for us means both Kentucky and Indiana lawmakers. And since many newspaper have no one in Washington, it would be good to come up with a system that would help them get reaction from their delegations. There also are Supreme Court rulings in which AP's help in gathering local reaction would be beneficial to many members. How that would be done from a resource and time perspective, I don't know, but I'm glad you're considering it. For us for now, localizing stories is based on a judgment call by our wire editor, Alan Player, and discussions at news meetings. I've sent this e-mail to him as well to comment or offer up some recommendations from his perspective.

Alan Player, wire editor, The Courier-Journal:

I'd be the best person to notify about localization possibilities, then I could forward the information to originating editors and reporters. E-mails would be helpful, in addition to notations on the daily budgets. Localization ideas atop the actual stories would help as well. The earlier the better on such info. I'd like to see it on morning advisories, rather than waiting for the main news digest and news advisories for AMs. As far as weekend notification, Wednesday would be about as long as we could wait. The web links provided by AP are a big help; we often use them to flesh out Ky. and Ind. angles on stories. References to any online databases or other resources would be helpful. Listing local agencies that could help reporters would be helpful (Call your local XX office and ask them about Y, for example). Just info that could point a reporter in the right direction, based on experiences the AP reporter encountered in researching a story.

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

— Ozzie Kleinas is our wire editor most days, so he's a good contact. So's his boss, News Editor Steve Roberts. Deputy Managing Editor Ray Marcano oversees the biggest chunk of our daily news gathering operations, so in most cases he'd see that a story needing localizing got assigned to the right person. And as managing editor, I'm always a good person to alert so I can toss a story to someone appropriate.

— The earlier we get word of an opportunity to localize a story, the better. That holds true for daily and weekend stories. On daily stories, it becomes significantly more difficult to successfully localize when we learn of it after 4 or 5 p.m., when many offices start closing and people we need to reach for information and comment become more difficult to reach. On weekend stories it often depends on how complex it will be to localize them. For example, a major enterprise piece on national efforts to clean up Superfund sites might require a fair amount of digging on our part to do justice to the local angle. In such a case it'd be great to learn about it a week or even two ahead of time, if possible. More simple localizing opportunities would require less notice. If we hear on Wednesday or Thursday that a story for Sunday release will come to us on Friday, that'd be good.

— Any kind of sourcing leads would be appreciated. If AP uses a national database for a story and it has data fields that are specific to Ohio or the Dayton area, we'd like to know about how we could access and analyze it. We often do this for Cox Newspaper enterprise stories. Cox Washington will write a national story, and provide us with an opportunity to dig further into the database for local or state angles.

— A notice on the existing digests would be fine in most cases. For AP enterprise offerings that are more complex and that would take more work to localize, a special advisory would be better. I always appreciate e-mail advisories on daily and longer-term efforts, and routinely pass them along to other editors with requests that we assign someone to localize. Again, Deputy Managing Editor Ray Marcano is also a good person to contact.

— The more you're willing to do to help us the better, but I don't think you need to knock yourselves out. Generally, just knowing that a localization possibility is coming, along with a description of what it's going to say, is enough to get us going. Always, more information, received as early as possible, is appreciated.

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

— Typically, the first point would be the local assignment editors (metro, features, sports, financial). These are the folks who administer staff who will ultimately be assigned to pursue the local angles.

— Ideally, as late as mid-to-late morning on non-spot news (lifestyle, health, a&e, etc.) still gives us an opportunity to look for sources that help us achieve diversity goals. That is to say, if we could literally talk to anyone for the local angle, we'd be inclined to look for sources of color, women sources, young adults, and so forth. For spot news or government-related developments, we may have less time, so we may have to turn to the usual sources. In any event, we'll chase local angles to wire stories right down to our deadlines, so any "heads up" at any time would be appreciated.

— Anything the AP can to to include links to databases, full reports online, source lists and so forth would be helpful. Would the AP consider listing the phone number or e-mail address of the primary source of a story, for example?

— Digests and separate advisories are great spots to accentuate localization possibilities. Another entry point would be at the top or bottom of the actual story.

— E-mail advisories would be an exceptional way to alert editors. I'd want this advisory going to key assignment editors (metro, sports, features, business) as well as general newsroom managers — m.e.'s and editors.

— In some stories, the gist of the news would work. For example, if the FDA was pulling all aspirin from the shelves, we'd have a pretty good idea of what we need to pursue. On the other hand, many local-angle stories require specific, detailed information in hand for local reporters to get meaningful reaction or to prepare the local angle, especially in stories that are primary driven by numbers. Frequently, local reporters run up against sources that don't have the details, either, so we need the details. Also, the sooner we receive the details, the sooner we can begin building our own graphics that accentuate the local angles.

Mike Chalmers, reporter often involved in localization, The News Journal, Wilmington, Del.:

— I'd say that our city editor/deputy city editor would be the best person to advise about localizing possibilities. They would be the ones making the assignments and setting the priorities. Because the topics are so varied, the job would not always go to the same reporter.

— As always, the earlier we can get the story, the better. For daily use, it would be best to get the story before noon. For weekend use, Thursday would be the latest we would want something; Wednesday or Tuesday would be best, especially if its something that would require a photo.

— What we would need would depend on how complicated the story is and how complicated we would want to make our local story. For a quick hit, a list, a table or a website would be adequate. For a larger story, we'd love to have a database, especially if we can crunch some of the data ourselves.

— Not being an editor, I can't say whether notification should be in the daily digests or in special advisories.

— Even if the story isn't done yet, I'd like to know its coming so I could get a jump on the localization. Especially for enterprise, AP should have a handle on the nut graf several days in advance; I don't need all the details to get started on a local story.

Tom Eblen, managing editor, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader:

— Early in the day, the local editors and I look at the wire. Later in the day, the wire and news editors do a more thorough job. When we, or they, see a story that cries out for localization, it is passed along to an assigning editor to find a reporter to do that work. Sometimes in stories that move late, a copy editor may do basic localization.

— Earlier is always better. If it gets much past 4 p.m., it's harder for us to find a reporter to do it, or for the reporter to reach people he or she needs to provide the information, for a daily story. If we want to do a significant sidebar, or more, we usually need to know early in the day or a day or more ahead of time so we can rearrange a reporter's priorities to get it done.

— All of those are helpful. We don't think it's realistic to ask AP to do localized writing for us, but it's helpful when you can provide sources of specific information we can use to localize stories that we might not know about. Databases and web sites we could access online would be helpful.

— Yes, that would be good. An e-mail message to select editors (as provided by each paper) would be the best way. I would like to have such an e-mail sent to me and my top local news, features, business and photo editors. Putting the information on advisories would be a good backstop.

— As I said, earlier is always better. If we're talking about significant local sidebars, at least a couple of days is nice. I would like to be advised of enterprise in the works; that way, we might see opportunities for localization that might not be apparent to AP editors.

Ronnie Agnew, executive editor, The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Miss.:

I think adding localization possibilities is an excellent idea. If it is added to the existing digest, most of our editors would see it, therefore the idea of localization would become more of a reality in our newsroom. For example, when the shuttle Discovery's launch was delayed, we looked for local reaction options to make the story more relevant to our readers. If AP could offer suggestions, perhaps you would have suggestions that we may not think about.

Dave Butler, editor, Daily News, Los Angeles:

I think the localizing question really picks at the broader issue facing The AP and that's how to more easily communicate with its members and when I say members I'm really talking about the working stiff editors who don't have all day to scroll the wires, who don't need five more AP budgets to go through. I'm not sure I have any good idea on localizing other than to say to do EVERYTHING possible to alert people and to alert them as early as possible. As you can imagine, West Coast papers often get stories from the East Coast that by the time we figure out we need a local angle the agency is closed because of the time difference. I guess maybe my one bit of advice would be not to look at localizing as a separate issue but as you step back see how that figures in to everything. I mean many papers have only 6-12 columns of state-national-world news these days. That's a drop in the bucket to what AP moves and most papers have multiple services, including their owner's wire. How can AP make figuring all of this out as easy as possible? In that regard, making it easier to localize wire stories is one small piece. Or so it seems to me.

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

— We are always looking for ways to Jersey-ize a national story—C-section rates, housing starts, meth busts, etc.

— If AP sent an advisory on days when such a report was being issued or an e-mail to our MEs or metro desk, it would make it easier to get rolling on it. It would have to move no later than 1 p.m.

— The addition of websites to a story to chase local data is always useful.

Jonathan Nesvig, wire editor, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.:

— It would be best to advise several people in the newsroom. They include Managing Editor Karen Peterson (karen.peterson@thenewstribune.com); local editor Randy McCarthy (randy.mccarthy@thenewstribune.com); reporter Adam Lynn (adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com), and our reader representative (reader.representative@thenewstribune.com)

— For daily use, 9 a.m.; for weekend use, Tuesday.

— Links to Web sites would help us find local content.

— It would be best to add the information to the news digests, so that we would not have to hunt for another file. Karen Peterson and Randy McCarthy are the editors to be contacted about the localization possibilities

— A short story outline is all we would need to work ahead on a project.

Jody Seaborn, national editor, Austin (Texas) American-Statesman:

— Depends on the type of story. For local and state angles, it would be best to notify the state editor and metro slot editor.

— For daily use before noon would be ideal. For weekends, by Thursday would be good.

— Databases and web site links to information that was used to write the story would be helpful so we can go to the source and break it down to an even smaller level. It's always helpful when AP moves rankings with data intensive stories (i.e., Texas was 48th in the SAT; Hays County was the fastest growing rural county ...)

— A short note added to existing digest with the story's budget would be easiest to identify (i.e., 'AP will move a ranking list of the 254 counties' or 'City-by-city breakdowns will be available at www.census.gov'). Including that info in the digest would eliminate the need for an e-mail advisory on localization possibilities.

— If it's longer-term enterprise, it would be helpful to receive budget lines early with any database or web info.

Karen Magnuson, editor and vice president/news, Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y.:

1. The people to be notified about localizations would be: the managing editor, metro editor, news editor and business editor. Localizing would be done by reporters.

2. The earlier we receive the information in the day, the more time we have to act. If we don't get it until 4 p.m., our window for action and for reaching people at work is seriously diminished. Same situation for weekends, only there are fewer reporters available for that kind of work, so it would be even more critical to get early notice. If you need more specifics RE times, then I would say by noon daily and by Tuesday for weekend use.

3. Information that is as specific as possible in whatever format we can get to fastest. For instance, if it were a story about homeland security funding, it would be great if we knew early which communities were getting it. We'd rather have that verbally early in the day than in some database at 4 p.m.

4. I vote for direct notification of localization possibilities via e-mail (to the same editors named above). Often, the wire editors aren't in early, and line editors don't hear about localization possibilities until the 3:30 p.m. news meeting. The info should be repeated in the regular budgets for the news desk.

5. Again, we'd like whatever amount of information we could get as early as possible. Most of all, we need a clear understanding of what the story is about and its nuances. Perhaps a longer than usual budget line would work if the story is still being reported. It's hard for a reporter to go out and localize a story if he or she isn't clear what questions need to be asked.

Thanks to all of you for giving the AP valuable feedback and guidance.

Dave

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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