Hundreds of Papers Use AP And Nothing Else, and Mine Cou

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Sat May 17, 2003 4:09 pm

I am the wire editor at a mid-sized Knight Ridder daily, and our executive editor just informed me that corporate wants us to do an "audit" of our use of "supplemental" wire services, specifically NYT and LAT-WP. What they really want is an excuse to cut out non-AP wires so they can shuffle money elsewhere.Apparently the party line is that Knight Ridder's Washington Bureau should be on par with those services. Therefore, we don't need anything but AP and our own Bureau.Frankly, I would have no interest in being a "wire editor" at a paper that only subscribed to its in-house wire service and The Associated Press. It would be like having an arm lopped off. Never mind that the audit asks us to count both NYT and LAT-WP stories when we can't use NYT anyway, what with our local competition being NYT-owned.And the idea of my readers losing the diversity of information we're currently able to provide is just plain galling.Has anyone else, at KR or elsewhere, been asked to engage in this insulting charade? I've got about a week to help make our case for keeping what KR so dismissively calls "supplemental" wire services. Any advice on arguments to set forth would be appreciated.

tommangan · **Posted:** Sat May 17, 2003 8:50 pm

They're asking you to do something they would not dream of asking one of the major papers like, ahem, the Merc or the Inky. I think I'd ask them why your readers deserve less than the readers in Philadelphia or San Jose.

dmfugitive · **Posted:** Sat May 17, 2003 9:11 pm

This same cost-cutting idea came up at my then-paper in the mid-90s. One of our arguments was: If LATimes or WashPost is moving an important, exclusive piece, you want to have the story in the paper the next day, not the 5-paragraph summary that AP will move at 11:30pm, if ever. It's going to be on TV -- and the Web -- all day, and you'll have missed it. I also seem to remember that our features department was even more adamant than the news side, because the AP features were garbage. Good luck.

jmcg · **Posted:** Sat May 17, 2003 10:17 pm

Curious. Wahts it's cost a paper the size
of Bradenton to subscribe to the LAT/WP service?
Can't be all that much, right?

Powderhorn · **Posted:** Sun May 18, 2003 2:40 am

This topic hits home because we're about to drop the LATWP wire. The fact that we're directly in the circ zone of the Post has convinced Media General that the wire service is useless because "all those stories ran in the Post the day before."Never mind the LA Times' contribution, or that of Newsday or the Baltimore Sun (or, for the matter, the fact that we get plenty of stories that will appear in the Post on the same day).As a solution to the issue of "having another source," the powers that be signed us up for the NYT News Service. A marvelous choice, aside from the fact that we get 15 inches on any given subject, and we get it at about 10:45.Is my paper skimping on the membership level for NYT or is that what everyone gets?To go back to the original question, I find that LATWP has a number of stories that the AP can't find with two hands and, well, you know. All NYT gives us is stories that raise more questions than they answer.My advice would be to point out what each service provides -- and how it makes a difference for your paper. If they can look you in the eye and tell you the KR bureau has produced as much, there's no problem. But I somehow doubt that will be the case.

tim · **Posted:** Sun May 18, 2003 5:49 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Matthew Grieco:
Never mind that the audit asks us to count both NYT and LAT-WP stories when we can't use NYT anyway, what with our local competition being NYT-owned.<hr></blockquote>Not to be a contrarian, but I don't understand. If you cannot use the NYT wire, why would your paper continue to pay for it?

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Sun May 18, 2003 1:14 pm

We cannot and we do not. But the audit form KR sent us asks us to count them anyway. I guess most KR papers use NYT.What, you expect this to make sense?Thanks for the advice and private messages, folks. You've helped my thoughts and convictions to come together.

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Sun May 18, 2003 2:58 pm

I worked for a paper that decided about 10 years ago that it would stop paying for either the NY Times or Wash Post/LA Times wire service. Wire editors were asked their preference. The publisher had been an NYT reporter back in the day, so we knew we weren't going to lose NYT. We said we needed both services.Management told WP/LAT that it wasn't worth the expense -- largely because the WP didn't send its copy early enough. (This was an Eastern time zone paper; despite the three-hour difference, we'd get LAT copy soon after dinner; then, Balt Sun and Newsday copy; only after our first deadline would WP copy typically show up.)WP/LAT sent someone from the WP to check on the deadline complaint. The service promised to do better, and i think a break on the price was negotiated.Maybe if your paper could negotiate a concession on price ...

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Mon May 19, 2003 9:25 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by tom mangan:
They're asking you to do something they would not dream of asking one of the major papers like, ahem, the Merc or the Inky.<hr></blockquote>Our executive editor told me today that ALL Knight Ridder papers, including the Merc and Inky, have been asked to do this audit.I know she wouldn't lie to me. Did someone lie to her?

tommangan · **Posted:** Tue May 20, 2003 1:46 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Matthew Grieco:
Our executive editor told me today that ALL Knight Ridder papers, including the Merc and Inky, have been asked to do this audit. <hr></blockquote>There are many kinds of "asking" and it could very well be they're planning to gut our wire services as well. Come to think of it, our national desk editor (who has worked in Asia and knows damn near everything, it seems sometimes) recently moved over to the editorial department. Wonder if this edict is why. Funny story about the guy: on the morning of 9/11, he had all his phones turned off, so our managing editor called one of his neighbors and begged him to go knock on his door, wake him up and tell him New York had just been attacked.

JimDeLa · **Posted:** Tue May 20, 2003 12:30 pm

Well, it sounds like you're using the LATWP, so your audit numbers should reflect that. If the rest of the wire editors around KR agree with you, the data should make it hard (or harder, anyway) for the corporate suits to justify whacking it. It might be worth a few phone calls to see what other papers are thinking about it.

Bolder1 · **Posted:** Mon Jun 30, 2003 10:14 pm

KR asked me to do the same about five years ago. I wanted to keep the NYT/WP stuff, which we used quite a bit, so it was easy to show that for big stories, we relied on those services as much or more than the KRT wire. Nothing changed, but we made sure that we were getting the most limited version of every wire service, to keep costs down.

pzicari · **Posted:** Sun Jul 06, 2003 9:35 pm

Don't discount the features angle, which has only been mentioned once here -- in my long-ago, unlamented features stint, I used a lot of "alternative" wire stuff because it was simply much better.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Sun Jul 06, 2003 9:41 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Pete Zicari:
Don't discount the features angle, which has only been mentioned once here -- in my long-ago, unlamented features stint, I used a lot of "alternative" wire stuff because it was simply much better.<hr></blockquote>Alternative. At a previous paper, I recall the sportos referring to all the non-AP stuff as the "exotic" wires. I always liked that.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Sun Jul 06, 2003 10:17 pm

JJ:That is great. I'm stealing it.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Sun Jul 06, 2003 11:12 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by jjmoney62:
Alternative. At a previous paper, I recall the sportos referring to all the non-AP stuff as the "exotic" wires. I always liked that.<hr></blockquote>Some of those supplemental wires are exotic, all right. Like citrus canker.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Sun Jul 06, 2003 11:17 pm

We had a boss who called them "sidewires." His NYC accent made it sound like "soidewoires."And then he would fart and fall asleep.Ask JMcG if you don't believe me. Or Betz.

jmcg · **Posted:** Mon Jul 07, 2003 5:59 pm

Let's just say, to use a blanp term, there was more to it than that. More to the point, I'd argue, the guy was a big fan of the "side wires," and would have no use for the bean counters who would run AP ("the A and P," as he called it) copy and AP copy only. Bumf would have this guy back as his boss in a second.

Bakelite · **Posted:** Tue Jul 08, 2003 7:56 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by jmcg:
Bumf would have this guy back as his boss in a second.<hr></blockquote>I would not.

jmcg · **Posted:** Tue Jul 08, 2003 8:17 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Dean Betz:
I would not.<hr></blockquote>Ah, but you don't have bumf's current boss(es) as your boss(es), do you, now?

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Tue Jul 08, 2003 11:08 pm

Yeah, I'd love to have him back. No question about it.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Wed Jul 09, 2003 5:58 am

gentlemen ....

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