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July 11, 2005

Dear AP Sounding Board members,

In a quick survey of coverage of the London bombings, we asked panelists to compare AP's writing, photography and graphics with reporting from other news organizations, with an eye to any lessons for AP coverage of future huge stories. Nine members responded to the four questions posed by Managing Editor Mike Silverman.

While AP coverage was praised in most responses (e.g., "first to move key news, art and sidebars" ... "some of the best photos" ... "AP dominated our lineup" ... "separate explosions budget comprehensive and very helpful"), panelists also offered critiques and suggestions: i.e., faster analysis of investigation questions; advance the focus of the main story with fresh angles for next-day readers; more detailed graphics map with landmarks.

The questions:

1. Is there anything in AP's print, photo, graphics, or online report that particularly stood out for you yesterday?

2. If you have a choice of services for print, photos or graphics, what made you choose AP or a competitor?

3. Did you use or consider using our Optional lead on the main story? Why or why not?

4. Is there anything we were missing or didn't provide up to your expectations? Anything you'd like to see different on the next huge story?

The responses, in order of receipt:

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

1. Centerpiece graphics was strong. Multiple write-thrus worked. Other graphics just fair; photos were not very strong.

2. We looked at KRT as well for photos; they were no better. Did use three KRT analyses, which in general tend to be better than AP's, both in terms of quality of writing and thought as well as variation of themes.

3. Yes we did. It provided different slant on a story that would be 30 hours old before it got to our readers.

4. Photos failed to meet standards, though I understand the access issues. There was no telling image, one that really was set apart.

Tim Kelly, managing editor, Wisconsin State Journal, Madison:

1. Of the three services used by the Wisconsin State Journal, AP was first to move key news, art and sidebars.

2. KRT graphics tend to be more comprehensive and visually appealing. We used AP's locator map however.

3. Our wire editor combined material from three services and wrote his own lede to put a forward spin on the story. But we like AP's optionals and use them regularly.

4. Our main concern was more a matter of circumstances: Photo choices suitable for page one use were very limited. The best picture was one of the first moved — the subway victim with a mask over her face — and as a result our coverage looked stale, as the image was all over the Web all day. There was nothing worthy of prominent display that fit with a second-day lede. But most of the action took place underground where photographers probably couldn't get access.

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

We have almost every supplemental wire service at our disposal, but AP dominated our lineup. Here's the morning-after account:

Mainbar — AP; Scene — AP; p-1 photos: devastated bus — AP; burn mask woman — AP; bewildered commuter — AP; map/graphic — largely AP; and Robert Millward of AP on the Sports cover w/ the Olympics-security piece. We used a couple of supplemental sidebars and photos inside, but it was a virtual AP sweep.

We did not use Robert Barr's optional lede, but it was nicely crafted.

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

1. Not really.

2. AP had some of the best photos, which we used. Other wire services (NYT, Washington Post in particular) filed better stories.

3. No, went with NYT lede. Better written, more scope, more context, more impact.

4. Can't think of anything.

George E. Campbell, copy desk director, Arizona Daily Star, Tucson:

1, The photo report seemed to be especially notable. We used three photos, bandaged woman being helped, wrecked bus and cell phone subway evacuation, all AP.

2. AP seemed to do a fine job with sidebars. We used the story on the difficulty of the investigation and a roundup of sidebar information (Blair speech, Giuliani, Londoners told to stay home, leaders condemn blasts, two Americans injured, travel slump expected) but had no room or anything else, once our own local angles were factored in. We also culled AP sidebars for front-page at-a-glance boxes. However. we used an NYT scene story (bus explodes as woman gets on) as our lede, as we wanted to try to personalize the story, thinking a hard news lede would not work on the day after. We did have to insert information from AP's lede story to get in the pertinent facts of the attack, which were not in the NYT story. We used a four-column KRT map of the four explosion sites because it included landmarks not in the AP map that we felt many people would recognize.

3. Even with the optional lede, we felt the information in the AP main story was what most people knew already.

4. Overall, I thought AP did a fine job covering the blasts. The report was complete. However, in an event of this magnitude, AP might want to think about a different approach for AMs of the next day and look for an approach that will be fresh or people who have been using the Internet and watching cable news since the news broke — a tough request, indeed.

Dick Moss, news editor, Rochester, N.Y., Democrat and Chronicle:

1. The separate London explosions budget was comprehensive and very helpful. The more of that kind of thing you can do to help us hit the ground running, the better. You also offered a lot of little glance-type pieces that were very interesting, such as the comparison of 9/11 and London timelines. We didn't have room for a lot of it, but it was good to have the options.

2. I like AP because of its breadth — it covers a lot of territory and gives us multiple angles — state, national and global, to help flesh out our report. For example, we relied on AP for the main portion of our national and state reaction stories. We also used at least one AP graphic (a backgrounder on terrorism in Europe). AP's ability to provide that kind of breadth in a relatively short period is one of your greatest strengths. When I turn to a competitor, it's usually because of depth (more analytical) or an angle that has a direct effect on people's lives — for the latter, we ran a Q&A from Gannett News Service that focused on what you can do to protect yourself and your family at home or while traveling.

3. No, we didn't. While the optional ledes occasionally work well as good second-day ledes, this one didn't jump out at me as one I definitely wanted to use. Sometimes the optional ledes work for us and sometimes they don't, but I do like having that variety and the chance to make the choice. I think it was a smart move. The one drawback to it is that on a breaking story like the London bombing that's constantly updating, the optional lede tends to get lost in all the flurry or stories and updates that I'm looking at on the wire.

4. I didn't find as much analytical reporting on AP as I was hoping for, and ended up using some Knight Ridder reporting for some of that. I would have liked to have seen AP reporters in the States, Europe and the Mideast seek out more of the terrorism experts to discuss more of the whys and hows of what happened. Because we are coming at readers after they've seen a lot of the whats and whens on TV or on the Internet, I'm usually looking for stories that lean more toward the analytical to try to answer some of the questions that TV and the Internet can't. The same applies to how the story directly affects the lives of ordinary Americans (like the GNS example above), e.g., our readers. We want to be able to tell our readers very clearly how and why a national or international story is important to their lives. AP has a tendency to let stories stand on their own merits rather than reaching out to potential readers. It's a subtle difference, but an important one in these days of competing media news sources.

Daniel H. Beatty, photos, and an unnamed desk editor, The Times Dispatch, Richmond, Va.:

1. The human element was strong in the photography which moved on the wire. That is what we were looking for.

2. We subscribe to AP. However, after checking what was moving from other services, we were still most moved by what AP offered.

AP was a bit light on where the investigation was going yesterday. mind you, that's not unexpected — AP, as usual, was strong with the "what's happening now" element — but we used other resources to get some of the more "investigative" parts of the early developments.

3. NA

4. Something more clearly stated visually of the wreckage ... many of those photos seemed ordinary compared to the people images you were moving. As stated above, the terror in human terms is what we were looking for primarily, but the context might have made a stronger visual statement.

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

1. The photo package was strong.

2. We combined the best of various wire services, AP included, for our main report. We also used AP for one of our sidebars (the difficulty of preventing terrorist attacks). KRT provided a much more detailed and visually strong graphic to explain how and where the bombings occurred. And we used several AP photos.

3. We considered the optional lead but it did not meet our needs. Our news editor, Larry Froelich, was looking for a version that would push this story ahead for readers who had been hearing and seeing reports of the bombings for 24 hours. However, AP's optional lead was just another approach to how the bombings timeline unfolded.

4. We are always looking for ways to advance major breaking stories that have occurred early in our news cycle. Saying that bombs exploded in London's underground transit system, killing at least 39 and injuring 700 would be great for an afternoon paper publishing on July 7 (readers may have heard the news on the radio or TV while going to work, but details were sketchy). But for a paper being delivered on the morning of July 8, we needed more ... and didn't get it from any wire service. Sidebars certainly helped to flesh out the main story but no one pushed it ahead of the previous day's news.

Amy Bauer, news editor, The Topeka Capital-Journal:

1. We were very interested in a second-day lede story based on the timing of the attack and its play all day on TV, Internet, etc. We compared L.A. Times, Washington Post and Associated Press stories and found your scene story to be superior in terms of incorporating not only the scene but also the critical news of the day. Other services' stories would have required much more background to be cobbled in or to have run along with a news lede story.

2. See above on our choice of print stories. The timeliness with which your stories move also is key for us. Our black deadline on first editions is 10:45 p.m. central time, and often the LATimes/Wash Post wire is moving large stories much closer to that deadline. We can count on AP to move stories quickly.

3. We often look at the optional leads on large AP stories and have used those in the past (Michael Jackson verdict for example), but in this case went with your scene story. The optional leads are appealing for those same second-day reasons — engaging an audience for whom many already know bits of the news through TV or Internet reports.

4. The thorough budgets were very helpful, as were the timeline graphic pinpointing each bombing and the breakout box options.

Many thanks for participating.

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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