Editors' Blog | Journalism.co.uk » Associated Press

Media release: AP supplying Super Tuesday results on a Google map

Sarah Marshall — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:27:46 +0000

The Associated Press is supplying feed of Super Tuesday vote results to a Google Map which subscribers to the news agency will be able to embed on their news site and other platforms.

In a release, AP said it is working with Google are to make the mapping application available to subscribers of AP Election Services for today’s Super Tuesday results, when 10 states cast their votes to select a Republican candidate to challenge President Barack Obama in November’s election.

Brian Scanlon, director of AP Election Services said in the release:

Our subscribers have always had the option to create these maps on election night, but some of them faced cross-platform challenges. Now, we have a turnkey mapping solution. Its an arrangement that not only makes sense for AP and Google, but also our customers and ultimately the end-user.

Eric Hysen of the Google Politics & Elections team said:

Google is excited to work with the Associated Press to help visualise and distribute the state-by-state results for Super Tuesday. Our Google results maps will show statewide and county level AP results in real-time at google.com/elections. AP subscribers will also be able to embed the results map on their own websites. We look forward to a successful and exciting Super Tuesday.

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AP test claims 50% of countries with FOI laws ‘do not follow them’

Rachel McAthy — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:06:14 +0000

Of the 105 countries which have laws governing the freedom of information, more than 50 per cent “do not follow them”, according to a test carried out by the Associated Press.

In a report on the findings of its test AP reveals that it sent out requests for information on “terrorism arrests and convictions … to the European Union and the 105 countries with right-to-know laws or constitutional provisions”, to find out how well they follow the rules.

According to its findings a total of just 14 gave complete responses and abided by the set time limit to do so in, while 38 “eventually answered most questions”.

The figures show 51 per cent of countries (a total of 54) approached for information by AP had not given it at the time of writing while 6 per cent “refused to disclose information, citing national security”.

Right-to-know laws seem to work better in some new democracies than older ones, the AP test showed, because their governments can adopt what has worked elsewhere.

Read the full report here.

AP is also asking its audience to send in ideas for more FOI requests they could make elsewhere.

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US newspaper apps adopt iCircular smartphone coupons

Sarah Marshall — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:25:20 +0000

Associated Press has teamed up with 40 newspapers in the US to roll out advertising on the papers’ phone apps and the mobile versions of their websites, according to paidContent.

The rollout of iCircular, a coupon system which focuses on driving customers into their local retail stores, begins today (19 September).

This post on paidContent states:

The iCircular feature will be found within newspaper mobile apps on the iPhone. The feature will be available on other formats, such as Google’s Android, later on. It’s HTM5-based, so that will also be available on newspapers’ web and mobile wap sites and ultimately ease iCircular’s transfer to other operating systems. The app will be situated within a special “deals” section on each of the newspapers’ apps and mobile sites.

“It’s essentially an app within an app,” said Mary Junck, chairman of AP’s board of directors’ revenue committee and CEO of Lee Enterprises. “We didn’t want to create an app separate from the newspapers. We wanted something that would be as integrated into the newspapers as a Sunday circular is in the print editions.”

There is more on iCircular in this AP press release published in February.

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Nieman: AP Interactive and a visual future for breaking news

Joel Gunter — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:02:06 +0000

Nieman Journalism Lab’s Justin Ellis has written an interesting post on the development of Associated Press’ interactive output, which has nearly doubled over the past two years.

Among other things, Ellis touches on on the work of the AP Interactive department covering breaking news stories with graphics:

The trick in being able to roll out these features so quickly (and likely another reason the department has increased its output) is the usage of templates, Nessa said. That basic form allows the artists, programmers, and others on staff to publish graphics quickly — and to continuously update them as more information comes in from reporters. That’s why when events like Japan’s earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit, you could find not only breaking reports from the AP, in text, but also incredible photography and interactive graphics that harnessed reporting from correspondents as well as accounts and images from on-the-ground witnesses.

See the full post at this link.

Interactives, graphics and visualisation are among a range of essential topics for modern journalists that will be covered at Journalism.co.uk’s upcoming news:rewired conference. See the full agenda at this link.

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Media release: PA signs UK video news deal for US with AP

Rachel McAthy — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:33:24 +0000

The Press Association has signed “a landmark deal” with the Associated Press to distribute PA’s UK video news footage through the US wire’s archive.

Under the new agreement AP’s archive customers will be able to access more than 18,000 UK videos, with new content from PA added on a daily basis.

A release from both parties says the deal will help the PA extend the reach of its footage beyond the UK and “significantly bolster the UK news element of AP’s video offering”.

It added the stories supplied to AP have been “specifically designed as ‘archive-friendly’ compilations of the rushes from which the story was created”.

Fully shortlisted, the stories provide customers with longer sequences and greater depth than the tightly edited packages offered by other suppliers.

See the full release here…

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AP: Huffington Post sale boosts newspaper stocks

Paul McNally — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:05:16 +0000

Shares in some of the big publicly quoted American newspaper groups rose yesterday on the back of news of AOL’s £195m acquisition of the Huffington Post.

Gannett rose 2.8 per cent yesterday and the New York Times Company 2.7 per cent.

According to the Associated Press, the flurry of trading activity shows that investors are still interested in news companies. “The [Huffington Post] deal raised the value on leading branded digital properties,” one analyst told the newswire.

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E&P: AP to move hosted video to NDN platform

Rachel McAthy — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:45:11 +0000

The Associated Press is to move its hosted online video operation onto a platform provided by the News Distribution Network (NDN).

According to a report by Editor & Publisher NDN will be providing the 1,500 affiliates of AP’s Online Video Network with the newswire’s coverage as well as video content from news brands across more than a dozen categories.

By the time the upgrade is completed in the first quarter of 2011, affiliates that opt in will have the broadest offering of video news available anywhere.

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AP confirms internship program will be put on hold

Rachel McAthy — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:26:42 +0000

The Associated Press has confirmed that its internship program has been put on hold for a year while the company focuses its financial resources on its “essential core businesses”.

Last week, Journalism.co.uk reported that the national president of the Society of Professional Journalists had urged the Associated Press to maintain its paid internship program as it underwent an internal examination. The AP changed its internship program in news to the AP Internship Program about 10 years ago, doubling the program in size.

Today a spokesperson told Journalism.co.uk that the internship program will resume in 2012 with “the same focus on diversity”.

As part of the cutback AP has also suspended its attendance at journalism recruitment conventions for a year.

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Poynter: AP newspaper revenues drop by a third

Rachel McAthy — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 08:59:53 +0000

Yesterday Poynter Online’s Rick Edmonds reported that the Associated Press has seen its newspaper revenues drop by a third in the past two years, from $220 million a year to around $140 million. This now represents just over 20 per cent of AP’s total revenue.

According to Poynter, AP’s CEO Tom Curley said he expected this to “drop ‘another $5 million to $7 million a year’ in 2011 and beyond”.

Though Curley and AP spokesman Paul Colford did not provide numbers for other business segments, Curley said growth areas include commercial photos, software businesses and AP’s international television news feeds, about to receive a $30 million upgrade to digital.

Online news has been a positive, he added, and broadcast is stable. Besides covering news abroad, the AP has also has a large international client base.

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Have your say on the AP 2011 Stylebook

Rachel McAthy — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:52:10 +0000

Do you find yourself critiquing news reports for poor writing style, bad punctuation or incorrect phrasing? If so then this is definitely one for you. The Associated Press (AP) has again opened up the floor to the public for entry suggestions to its 2011 Stylebook.

Last year the AP decided to ask for suggestions for its new section on social media and received 237 ideas in response.

Now the guide’s editors are asking for more suggestions for the next revision. The Stylebook itself features a main A-Z as well as the areas listed below:

Social Media Guidelines;
Business Guidelines;
Sport Guidelines;
Punctuation Guide;
Briefing on Media Law;
Photo Captions;
Interactive Department;
Filing Practices;
Filing the Wire.

The deadline for offering suggestions for the 2011 Stylebook is 15 November.

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Poynter: Memo from AP chief tells staff pension will be frozen

Rachel McAthy — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:43:25 +0000

Staff at the Associated Press were yesterday told via a memo from AP CEO Tom Curley that the company was proposing to freeze the defined benefit pension plan at its current level, according to a copy of the memo posted by Jim Romenesko on Poynter.

In the note Curley adds that any future company investment in the pension would be “directed toward a defined contribution plan”.

Since I came to AP I have strived to do everything possible to keep your pension plan intact. Unfortunately, industry and economic pressures mean this is no longer possible. Nearly all media companies, as well as more than half of Fortune 100 companies, have already frozen their defined benefit plans.

This was not an easy decision. Your pension and your well-being are very important to me. As we work through these changes, we will strive to find ways to maximize your retirement benefits. Within the next two days, you will be receiving more information about our proposal and the impact it might have. Once the negotiation process is concluded, we will make sure you have more detailed information as quickly as we can.

Hatip: Editor&Publisher

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James Beard Journalism Awards and Associated Press bylines go platform-neutral

Joel Gunter — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 09:30:14 +0000

The James Beard Journalism Awards – “the Oscars of the food world” – are to go platform-neutral. Categories for the awards will no longer be arranged according to platform but content.

“Why? Because we cracked a window … and noticed it was 2010 outside,” wrote Kat Kinsman, who is also on the committee that oversees the awards, for CNN’s Eatocracy section. “This is not a dance on the grave of print publication … Rather, this is an acknowledgment that online contributions should no longer be relegated to the kids’ table.”

Full story on sfnblog.com.

Associated Press also signalled a move toward multi-platform today, announcing that it would no longer byline its stories “Associated Press Writer”. According to an Editor & Publisher report, bylines will now feature the journalist’s name, followed simply by “Associated Press”.

Thomas Kent, the AP’s deputy managing editor and the man responsible for editorial standards, told E&P the new platform-neutral style is “consistent with the change in AP journalists. It reflects what’s been going on for a long time – people go out, they take pictures, they write stories, they do video, they work on different platforms.”

Full story on Editor & Publisher.

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Citizen Media Law Project: The laws of news aggregation

Rachel McAthy — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:32:42 +0000

The Nieman Journalism Lab has posted an interesting report on the legality of different forms of news aggregation based on a white paper created by Kimberley Isbell of the Citizen Media Law Project.

While the paper is based on US copyright law, it is likely to be a useful point of reference for anyone dealing in online content.

In the paper Isbell offers context by discussing recent cases and the impact on the legal environment, including the licensing agreement between Google News and Associated Press announced at the end of last month. In a wider context, she adds, news aggregators can often argue a fair use policy.

(…) news aggregators could argue that the type of consumer that would only skim the headlines and ledes on the news aggregators’ website is not the type of consumer that is likely to visit individual news websites and read full articles, and thus would be unlikely to be a source of traffic for the newspapers’ websites if the news aggregators did not exist.

Her work concludes with some useful bullet points of best practice, reproduced in summary below:

reproduce only necessary portions of the story, not in its entirety;
try not to focus on a single source;
prominently identify the source;
link to the original source of the article;
provide context or commentary where possible.

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US group releases draft guidelines for online content syndication

Joel Gunter — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:45:30 +0000

A group of online content syndicators including the Associated Press, Reuters, Tribune Company and CBS has released a proposed set of guidelines for content syndication, according to a report from MediaWeek.

The Internet Content Syndication Council began considering the guidelines at the beginning of July.

The guidelines are aimed at countering the effect that the group sees as a growing and dangerous trend on the web – the rise of shoddy, poorly-sourced and edited content, often produced solely with gaming search engines in mind.

The proposed guidelines will now be open to review by its membership and the wider online media industry.

Full post at this link…

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Music stops in the White House press room, Fox sits down first

Rachel McAthy — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:46:25 +0000

The battle for a coveted front row seat in the White House press room is over, with Fox News claiming the chair.

Following the retirement of Helen Thomas in May, Associated Press moved to her centre-spot, freeing up its old space further along the front row.

National Public Radio, Bloomberg News and Fox all requested the special spot – but Fox was finally selected due to its “length of service and commitment to the White House television pool”, according to AFP.

NPR’s correspondent will now move up one row to Fox’s old second-row seat, next to Bloomberg News.

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