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Sept. 30, 2005

Dear AP Sounding Board members,

Eight of you responded to questions posed by Mike Silverman and Kathleen Carroll on AP coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath.

"We're very grateful for the frank assessment, both regarding what we did well and where we needed to do better," Mike commented. "The degree of detail and specificity in the Sounding Board replies will be extremely helpful to us as we plan our coverage of the Katrina aftermath and the rebuilding of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast."

The questions and full responses, in the order of receipt:

1, What has AP done in its Katrina coverage that you've found especially useful to your newspaper (include print, photos, graphics)?

Dick Moss, news editor, Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle:

Photos seemed to move in a timely fashion and seemed to have good coverage (not just New Orleans). The help you got from Dallas was a key component — our photo editor says its was tremendous. Also, your staff photographer Eric Gay was terrific — good pictures every day. Much better than other photo services. Overall coverage was more comprehensive than other wire services (more from a wider variety of places) but didn't have quite the depth in some cases (see below). Graphics tended to be a little slow — understandable in the situation — and weren't quickly updated throughout the night.

Deanna Sands, managing editor, Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald:

This from our photo editor: "Overall, I was actually pretty pleased about their photo coverage. Eric Gay did an incredible job from the first day." From our night wire editor: "I thought some of the coverage in the first week after the storm was some of the best AP reporting I've ever read. Art was very good, too."

Dave Butler, editor and publisher, Detroit News:

Among the AP offerings we found useful:

• The developments box. It provided a quick read on the latest news. Would have like to see it more often during the cycle.

• Some good enterprise to accompany the daily breaking news, including some good Bush-Katrina analyses and stories on the health and environmental risks.

• Photos were pretty extensive, and covered all areas affected. The aerials right after the flooding in New Orleans were telling. I wished there were more aerials in that first 24-hour period, although I understand there were limitations on air space that were a factor in those first days.

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

Stories were solid and timely. Developments roundup were especially useful.

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

The AP continues to provide timely, accurate and relevant coverage of significant spot news. We have seen some of AP's best work ever in the past several weeks. Now, we should asking if AP is placing enough emphasis on "what's next" in this important story. Obviously, the jury's still out, as this story continues to unfold. From what I read in our paper and other papers, there is a lot of attention being paid to what Americans can anticipate regarding federal government involvement in rebuilding the Gulf Coast.

I encourage AP to continue to look around the corner at stories that give Americans some sense of how this calamity will be paid for; what ultimately happens to the evacuees; what controls are being put in place to ensure accountability in government spending for this massive project; is there any validity to the premise that reconstruction of the Gulf Coast will result in social-engineering (will people who were poor before the storm still be poor after the rebuilding, etc.; and so forth. These are important issues and questions, undoubtedly destine to be a part of the political debate.

Daily developments are helpful. They remind us of what's available; they help us in packaging similar stories.

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

Because we are in Florida, we throw virtually our entire staff at hurricanes, so we use primarily local copy. But AP has been particularly helpful with photographs., particularly when a city like New Orleans is struck, because we can't station large number of photographers that far away. AP had a number of excellent news photos and maps/graphics that told us what was happening in various parts of New Orleans. AP also occasionally came up with good short people stories — tales of extraordinary efforts or extraordinary experiences that people had to endure. It was good to have AP photos of various N.O. landmarks showing how they fared during the storm. This was also true on the Mississippi Coast, where AP gave us good overall views of the damage.

David Birdwell, national/foreign news editor, The Seattle Times:

First of all, The Seattle Times doesn't lean on AP as heavily as many of your members. We have a wealth of other sources — Washington Post/LA Times, Knight Ridder Newspapers, Newhouse, Gannett, Reuters, Bloomberg and The New York Times (Sundays only). If AP breaks something or does a particularly nice job on a particular story, we use your stories. We also use a lot of AP in multisourced rewrites, which we do more of than most newspapers. In cases of one-source stories, all things being equal, I often go with non-AP sources because it gives us something that won't appear in our competitors' products.

As for Katrina, I'd have to say KRT has been the leader ... (details under #4,)

That said, AP has had its moments. I've done an extensive survey of AP content that we have published since Katrina made landfall. I count 35 separates in 23 days (I'd guess we've published as many as 200 stories). We've included AP content into 15 other separates, and AP has been a prime contributor to all our briefs packages. (see **list below)

The general roundups are always good to have. As noted above, we've used a lot of AP odds and ends as inserts into other stories and as briefs. We also rely on AP for official death tolls. The glances are very useful, allowing us to check events in general to ensure that we're not missing something. In a few cases, we have used AP glances and breakout boxes to complement stories written by others. A quick look at Bush's rebuilding proposals (Sept. 15) and another on their projected costs (Sept. 16) are notable examples.

Photos: Our editors say nobody has been head and shoulders above everyone else. They did give AP high marks for picking up more members' photos than normally. This has been a big help.

Graphics: Our editors say AP graphics have been satisfactory. They liked your maps, but say you haven't done as well on "super-structural" graphics. For example, KRT has done some great things with detailed looks at the levee system, the layout of New Orleans, and an overall comprehensive look at the hurricane damage.

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

I think AP has done a terrific job—particularly reporters Allen Breed and Adam Nossiter (both have had a nice mix of facts and anecdotes in their mainbars) and photographer Eric Gay. Our web site was updated repeatedly with the AP writethrus.

2, What online offerings from AP have been of particular value to your Web site? For example, sat map, special interactives or other offerings?

Dick Moss: We linked to your expanded Web coverage, which we thought was the most comprehensive out there.

Dave Butler: AP's video offerings and ongoing photo galleries generated a lot of interest and page views as they always do. But the strongest new features in recent coverage seemed to be the interactive "Hurricane Tracker" map/graphic, which continues to be a key component as Rita approaches the Keys this week. The "Hurricane Explainer" info graphic, which tracks the formation of the storms and defines the differences between categories is also an excellent interactive graphic presentation. Stand-alone sound files do not generate as much interest as the video files.

Bill Betterton: Maps and charts

Mark Bowden: N/A

Bill Rose: Again, maps/graphics of New Orleans.

David Birdwell: Online: Editors give AP high marks, saying they received far more than they could handle.

3, What holes or weaknesses in AP coverage have you particularly noticed?

Dick Moss: A by-the-numbers feature would be particularly helpful. You ran a daily developments update that was especially helpful for our readers who scan, but an accompanying breakdown of the numbers affected — deaths, refugees, number of customers without power in a clear way would save a great deal of searching and cross-checking. I also thought you were a little light on Mississippi coverage, but then everybody was once the spotlight started shining on New Orleans.

Deanna Sands: From our night wire editor: "I think that NYT and Washington Post have been stronger on covering the federal response and the controversy surrounding it."

Dave Butler: We would have liked to see a better Hurricane roundup that hit on the major developments of the day, not just in New Orleans but throughout the disaster area.

Sometimes AP didn't always play up what seemed the most important development of the day. Today (Sept. 19) was an example. The A.M. story for Monday started as a look at how the New Orleans hospital system wasn't prepared for people to return, and didn't until later change into a story about how the mayor and FEMA director were disagreeing on when residents should return.

More frequent and complete "coping" boxes that tell people how to help, how to choose a charity, how to find loved ones in the area, that kind of thing. And its nice when theyre repeated every once in a while.

Again, would have been nice to see the developments breakout updated several times during the cycle. When its sent only once, it gets outdated quickly.

In terms of photo, AP did not move much at all in the mornings, so there was little we could do to update for the later editions of the paper. Sometimes there would be hours early in the morning when not much moved at all. For example, the day of the scheduled evacuations from the Superdome, we were looking for anything from the Superdome or outside, and there was practically nothing. We ended up sticking with photos taken the night before.

As for online, all major, continuing stories should have a specific AP "lineup" option, similar to existing topic lineups like "Iraq" as soon as it is clear the topic will be around for awhile. The resulting stories linked from these lineups should include all interactive, video and gallery options. In the case of Katrina, there was no Katrina lineup offered. Options were only generic "Hurricane" or "Weather" lineups, which forced us to manually maintain our own lists of Katrina stories and features links. A direct Katrina feed would have been more practical.

Bill Betterton: A lack of quality stories about individuals until later in the coverage.

Mark Bowden: We would have liked to have seen more stories out of Mississippi. Devastation there was overshadowed by New Orleans. (On the other hand, photo coverage from Mississippi was excellent.) We were dependent on Katrina developments. Some nights they came; some nights they didn't, even when news was still plentiful; then they returned. We needed some consistency or at least some notice. We also became dependent on the roundup, and when that ended, the focus seemed to shift. One night, New Orleans served as the roundup; other nights, it was news out of Washington. It would be helpful to have the AP digest state which version will serve as a roundup. (When space gets tight, roundups may be all we have room for.)

Bill Rose: None stand out. Good comprehensive report.

George Frederick, graphics editor, The Star-Ledger:

I found the graphics response to be lacking, especially early in the coverage. On Sunday, the day before the hurricane hit, I expected to go on the AP and KRT wires and find a bunch of stuff about hurricanes and levees all ready to go. There was nothing.

Once we got into the story, we didn't use them much. We were ahead of them on the graphics. Our stuff was better and done earlier. So we got in the habit of not waiting. We didn't seem to miss much by not waiting.

The stories that moved from AP were of great benefit for us to do our graphics, but I don't think they put the same priorities and coordination on their graphics as they did their stories.

4, What have other services done better than AP?

Dick Moss: Knight Ridder and the New York Times, particularly, were quick with a turn-around on what went wrong with the evacuation and the government's response (we used Knight Ridder). I didn't see that kind of detail and depth from AP, but you did a lot of other things well.

Deanna Sands: One criticism from our photo editor about sharing of pool photos: "A couple times we bought a pool aerial because the AP photo didn't move until 2-3 hours after AFP and Reuters had moved the same photos."

Dave Butler: L.A. Times, Wash. Post and N.Y. Times had more good narratives ("readers") that really captured the magnitude on the tragedy. Unfortunately, they often moved later at night, which meant they typically didn't make early editions. It would have been nice if AP had done more of those stories.

From a photo standpoint, AP kicked butt. Eric Gay should hands-down receive the Pulitzer Prize for his intense, evocative imagery from the early stages forwarded. The New York Times had Vince LaForet all over the place, and his photos were very good.

AP was everywhere and seemed to know where to go to get the emotion. From my spin, it looked like Getty was reacting to the news. It's difficult to separate out the two services because they come in together. Getty was picking up any images they could from freelancers in the early going and AP had their troops on the ground, in place.

Bill Betterton: Other wire services dealt with the failures of FEMA and other agencies before AP began to look at it. There were more feature stories about individuals and their tales.

Mark Bowden: AP has excelled in the breaking news, but other wire services have offered a greater variety of enterprise and maybe more on the human condition.

Bill Rose: NYT provided excellent perspective, context and depth. Unmatched, in my opinion.

David Birdwell: (KRT) put a lot of boots on the ground, perhaps as many as AP, although I have no way to gauge that. It just seems that way. With the Dallas, Fort Worth, Miami and Biloxi papers, to mention a few, KRT also has been able to provide a familiarity with the destruction zone that others can't match. We're also fortunate to have Newhouse, since the Times-Picayune belongs to that chain. The Washington Post and LA Times have given us some awfully compelling stuff, too.

5, Going forward, please make suggestions for the kind of coverage youd like to see from AP. Be as specific as possible.

Dick Moss: Would like to see graphics updated in a more timely fashion when need be. Ex., if a hurricane is coming toward the coast, keep updating the location map — I don't always see this happening. The by the numbers I mentioned above. And figuring out how to step back and give the big picture occasionally (like the response stories).

Deanna Sands: Constant flow of stories on people rebuilding their lives once they return to the Gulf Coast.

Dave Butler: I thought AP overall did a great job. We particularly appreciated the stories that got beyond the days news, and provided some context, perspective and drama.

In the future:

• More stories that convey the emotion and human tragedy.

• Regular development boxes that summarize top stories.

• Better hurricane roundup that elaborated on the major developments, from throughout the disaster zone.

• From photos standpoint, I'd suggest on a big story like this that the cycle be a complete 24-hour one, and that there not be such a gap of several hours in the morning when images do not move.

Bill Betterton: Be as specific as possible. I like to see the develops idea expanded into a briefs package so the briefs package could act more as a roundup of the days events.

Mark Bowden: On big stories like Katrina, it would be helpful to have a digest of all stories expected and their slugs, and update that digest as necessary. When roundups end, specify which story could stand as a roundup. If possible, offer a take of briefs. It might be necessary beef up photo captioning operations. Katrina offered many stunning images, but in many cases the cutlines were bare bones. It is understandable that photographers, working under such horrendous conditions, would not be able to flesh out cutlines. But perhaps someone at a regional or national photo desk could flesh out captions using material gathered for stories.

Bill Rose: Be as specific as possible. For a Florida paper, a hurricane turns AP into a classic supplement. We want and need as many details, statistics, maps, graphics as possible to supplement our own stories. AP allows us to lengthen our grasp. I'd like to see AP continue to churn out good, comprehensive ledealls and color sidebars.

I'm dreaming here, but It would be nice to see AP have an enterprise team that hits major disasters like hurricanes and tries to do enterprise or investigative work on the run as the story continues to break over several days. For example, if evacuation is a huge story, find the plans, expose the shortcomings. If FEMA is the issue, tell me how FEMA works or doesn't work.

David Birdwell: As we go forward, I would suggest more emphasis on stories that explain what went wrong and what went right. KRT has scored big with in-depth pieces on the failures of FEMA (including both Brown and Chertoff). Newhouse broke the hurricane experts' claim that the storm surge wasn't as high as authorities have said and that the levees should have held. The Post had a nice piece on the politicizing of FEMA. Bridis' piece on Brown's memo seems to be AP's high-water mark in this regard.

Rick Everett: Going forward, I think the biggest need is to follow the money. The chances for impropriety are many. Picking a block of inner-city residents and seeing where they all ended up would be a project worth pursuing.

** AP stories singled out by David Birdwell ("I particularly liked or had something of value that we couldn't find anywhere else"):

• Holbrook Mohr's Aug. 30 piece on the Biloxi woman whose apartment building washed away, purportedly killing 30 people. The death toll has been refuted, but the reporter couldn't have known that at the time.

• An AP/Dallas Morning News Aug. 30 combo explainer on how the water would be pumped out of New Orleans. Front page.

• A world reaction piece, written Aug. 31.

• A short on the damage to the homes of Trent Lott and other lawmakers, Aug. 31.

• A Sept. 1 story that examined the Internet-fueled controversy over photo captions, one involving whites and the other involving a young man of color.

• A Sept. 2 piece on Ray Nagin's radio-interview outburst.

• A Sept. 2 explainer on why the death toll won't be known for a long time.

• Colleen Long's Sept. 3 look at New Orleans' icons, which fared well and which didn't fare so well.

• The Sept. 6 look at the controversial use of the word "refugee." (By the way, while I don't necessarily agree with the PC choices to shun the word, I would suggest that you guys drop it, too, since few papers are using it anymore).

• Ted Bridis' exposure of Brown's memo that said FEMA's Day 1 goal was to "convey a positive image."

• Kristie Rieken's Sept. 8 first-day-of-school piece. Very nice.

• Donna Cassata's Sept. 10 look at what this thing will cost.

• AP's comprehensive, state-by-state breakdown of where the evacuees are sheltered.

• Erin McClam's Sept. 12 story on the 40 bodies found in the New Orleans hospital.

• Ron Fournier's Sept. 13 look at the possibility that this disaster would alter the political landscape.

• Your short on Blanco accepting responsibility for the state's poor response. I don't believe anybody else had that. Good to have one day after Bush did the same thing.

• AP's Sept. 17 feel-good story on the rescue of the 76-year-old man who spent 16 days trapped in an attic.

• Michael Graczyk's Sept. 20 piece on evacuees being re-evacuated in the face of Rita.

• Adam Nossiter's profile on Nagin. I can't believe it took everybody this long to get around to it.

• Your Sept. 21 explainer on how the death toll would likely take a big leap forward as rescue workers start breaking down doors in the 9th Ward.

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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