APME PRESIDENT ON NEW AP RATE PLAN, COVERAGE CONCERNS

APME President David Ledford says in today's economy, it's not surprising that editors want financial relief from The Associated Press. AP's Board of Directors last week approved a new pricing structure for members, calling it the most significant overhaul of pricing since the news cooperative was created in 1846. The action, under consideration for more than a year, came as two separate groups of editors sought an AP rate cut, arguing that newspapers desperately need help from the cooperative navigating one of the most difficult passages in the industry's history.

AP executives met with the APME board last week to discuss the cooperative's financial picture and the reasoning behind the new plan, known as "Member Choice." In columns on the APME site, Ledford discusses the rates issue and also concerns from Ohio members regarding AP coverage and filing issues.

Talk about the column and the AP board's action in the APME forum.

HOLLIS TOWNS JOINS APME LEADERSHIP

Hollis Towns, executive editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer, has been elected to the leadership of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association. During last week's meeting in New York, directors of the association's governing board chose Towns to chair the group's Journalism Today committees. The selection places him in position to become president in 2011.

Also during the meeting, Otis Sanford, editor of opinion and editorials at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., became secretary, putting him in line to become president in 2010. Sanford replaced Steve Sidlo, publisher of the Springfield (Ohio) News-Sun, who resigned for family reasons.

REPORT TO FOCUS ON CREDIBILITY

The APME Credibility Committee has been working with the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri on follow-up from the APME-Reynolds survey summarized at the convention last October, says Chair J. "Bart" Bartosek of the Palm Beach Post and co-chair Ted Daniels of the Ashland (Ohio) Times-Gazette.

The full report, prepared by Pam Johnson, Reynolds Executive Director, and Ken Fleming, Associate Director of Research, is due to be released soon. APME hopes to ratchet up interest in more discussion and action with the help of the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Howard Finberg, Interactive Learning Director, and Kelly McBride, Ethics Group Leader, will use facilities and technology at Poynter to help Reynolds highlight key points in the report and, we hope, arrange some interactive debate with journalists on various topics.

To get involved with the Credibility Committee, contact Bart Bartosek (561)-820-4133 or mjbartosek@pbpost.com

AP HAS ANSWERS FOR PUBLIC'S NEWS QUESTIONS

Editors can enhance their newspaper's role as a clearinghouse of information by using AP's new Q&A initiative, called "Ask AP."

Readers are encouraged to e-mail questions to newsquestions@ap.org and AP will tap its experts to get the answers. This information will appear in periodic installments of the new Q&A column, both online and in newspapers.

Eric Carvin, a supervisor in the news department, is overseeing the initiative along with Deputy Managing Editor Tom Kent. Carvin says more than 150 questions have been submitted since AP's Jan. 9 posting on AP Hosted, Google, Yahoo! and elsewhere online seeking questions from the public.

Read the most recent column here.

LAST CALL FOR NEWSTRAIN IN LITTLE ROCK

There is still time to register for APME NewsTrain's workshop this Friday-Sunday at the Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Ark. The program, an incredible value at $50 per registration, is for frontline editors. The NewsTrain's sessions will include coaching writers, giving effective feedback, skeptical editing, understanding video and ethics, and values in Web journalism. For program details, go to www.newstrain.org

MORE RESOUCES ON APME WEB SITE

A new "resources" page on www.APME.com should help busy editors keep track of workshops, fellowships and seminars and other professional growth opportunities for journalists. The goal is to provide a timely directory with Web links for details. Let us know if you have items for this directory. Here are ones currently on the site:

■ McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum: Discussion With David Boaz, Feb. 12, Chicago

■ Branding in Media and Entertainment, March 5-7, New York City (deadline Feb. 22)

■ Iowa Gallup Award for Excellent Journalism Using Polls (deadline March 1)

■ Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism (deadline March 3)

■ 2008 Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism, March 14-16, Boston

■ USC: All-expenses-paid health journalism seminars, April 13-18, Los Angeles (deadline March 3)

■ UC-Berkeley: Tech Multimedia Training, Editors March 25-28, Reporters April 15-18, Berkeley, Calif. (deadline Feb. 8)

■ Journalism That Matters – Silicon Valley: NewsTools2008, April 16-18, New York City (deadline April 4)

■ Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism (deadline April 28)

■ Business Strategy in the Digital Age, April 30-May 3

■ Asian American Journalists Association 2008 J Camp, July 18-23, Chicago (deadline April 11)

APME.com's resources page also includes current and past issues of APME News, PDFs of APME books, and coverage of past conferences.

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED IN APME

It's not too late to write a New Year's resolution – and act on it – if you haven't already done so. Make a commitment to get involved with one of APME's many committees, all of which do great work to help strengthen the AP report and to serve the needs of today's editors. Here are some contacts:

AP Sounding Board – Peggy Bellows, (804) 649-6301 or pbellows@timesdispatch.com

2008 Las Vegas Conference – E.J. Mitchell, (856) 486-2410 ejmitchell@camden.gannett.com

Credibility – John Bartosek, (561) 820-4133, john_bartosek@pbpost.com

First Amendment – David Bailey, (501) 378-3594 dbailey@arkansasonline.com

Innovations – Bob Heisse, (814) 231-4640, bheisse@centredaily.com

Marketing – Rob Humphreys, (540) 825-0771, rhumphreys@starexponent.com

ARE YOU PREPARED FOR DEATH?

No, this is not a Sunday sermon, but a fair question to ask regarding your staff's ability to post or publish quickly a news obituary in the event of a sudden death of a newsmaker in your community.

It's been standard practice for most news organizations to prepare obituaries on high-profile people, celebrities and the like in the event of their untimely deaths. When news broke that AP had on file an obituary for pop star Britney Spears, it stirred some controversy.

Jesse Washington, AP's entertainment editor, in an interview with Bob Garfield of New York Public Radio, explains the thinking behind preparing news obits on young celebrities who seem to be in trouble:

"... The obit desk really exists all throughout the whole world at the AP and every editor, such as myself, is responsible for being prepared in their area. So we don't have some morbid group of individuals sitting around looking at folks who are ready to keel over. It's more us exercising our news judgment."

Read Garfield's interview with Washington here.

DID PHOTOS SHOW NEWSPAPER'S BIAS?

Karen Hunter, the reader representative at the Hartford Courant, likens her job to that of to a road builder, "bridging the gap between what readers say they expect from the newspaper and what editors consider as they compose it."

In a recent column, Hunter takes on readers' perceptions of bias in how the Courant displayed photographs of the winners in the Iowa Precinct Caucuses and the New Hampshire presidential primary election.

Hunter offers some points to consider for editors as they lay plans for coverage of the "Super Tuesday" presidential primaries on Feb. 5. Check out Hunter's column at www.newsombudsmen.org

ENCOURAGE READERS TO EXAMINE WAR'S ORIGIN

"Pam Platt, public editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, says "Americans owe it to themselves" to examine how the U.S. got into the war on Iraq.

In a column published Jan. 27, Platt suggests a starting point for this inquiry is by reading a new report conducted by two non-profit, non-partisan and independent journalism organizations, the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

The report, "Iraq – The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War," is a result of a three-year effort to analyze and annotate every public statement made by President Bush and seven top administration officials about Iraq's WMDs and its links to al-Qaida between Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept. 11, 2003.

The project's bottom line: President Bush and his top officials made at least 935 false statements about those two subjects in that two-year period. The findings can be found in full at www.publicintegrity.org. Check our Platt's column here.

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