AP revises crediting policy to include member links
Last year, the AP introduced a new policy for the crediting of member newspapers in our reporting, including member attribution in stories picked up from a single newspaper — no matter how small the story.
Starting next week, that practice moves one step further. In addition to offering a link to the contributing member’s home page at the end of a text story in the “Information From†tag, we will also provide a direct link to the actual story from which the pick-up originated in the text of the AP version.
This new policy applies when the entirety of the story is derived from a single member’s contribution. These stories move most often on state wires but occasionally are transmitted on national or global wires.
AP managing editor Mike Oreskes points out that nothing about this change alters our existing policy on attributing to other organizations information that we haven’t independently reported. Nor does it change our policy to give credit to members that broke a story first, even when we match it or advance it through our own reporting.
For members with pay walls, the link will generally direct a reader to a page in- forming them the story they seek is behind a pay wall and explaining how they can purchase access to that content.
Providing direct links to member stories has been under consideration by the AP and its members for some time, but technical issues prevented its implementation. Those technical matters have now been overcome.
June Photo of the Month
Deborah Cannon of the Austin American-Statesman is winner of the June Photo of the Month contest among Texas newspapers for this image that visually demonstrates the fatigue among lawmakers in the waning days of the Legislature’s special session.
Plushnick-Masti visits Cotulla to tell the story of a new oil boomtown
Houston’s Ramit Plushnick-Masti traveled to Cotulla in June to tell the story of its transformation from a South Texas backwater to the hub of a major oil boom.
For generations, Cotulla has been a town where even the paved roads had the aura of the dusty, saloon-lined paths from old Western movies. Cowboys, ranchers and shop owners tied their livelihood to the hunting season. Young people left to escape double-digit unemployment and poverty rates.
Now, Plushnick-Masti writes, the challenge is all the people pouring in.
Cotulla, about 90 miles south of San Antonio, and nearby towns are rushing to house hundreds of workers and approve plans for apartment complexes and industri- al parks to keep up with the development of the Eagle Ford shale formation, one of the most plentiful new oil fields in the country.
After years of preliminary work, the project is fully under way and sales tax revenues have soared.
AP expands Hometown Leads to include college football, NFL coverage
Hometown Leads, which offered a more local approach to the AP’s coverage of Major League Baseball, has been expanded to include major college football and the NFL.
On college games, Hometown Leads will move on Top 25 teams and those from the six major BCS conferences, including the Big 12. All NFL games will carry the Hometown Leads.
As in baseball, these leads will be filed in addition to the regular optional top that focuses on the winning team. They will move after the breaking and optional leads have appeared on the wire.
The new Hometown Leads will also pick up into the material in the breaking lead; stories will be approximately 12-15 inches in length. The football leads will carry a featurized top.
National APME Conference to recognize innovation
Denver plays host to this year’s national APME conference, Sept. 14- 16.
An action-packed program provides the support, training and ideas news- room leaders need. The conference will be held at the new Embassy Suites Denver-Downtown Convention Center,
Visit www.apme.com to learn more and to register.