Save the date for the 2012 Texas APME convention

Save the dates now for the 2012 Texas APME convention in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Convention dates will be March 30-April 1, with venues across the DFW metroplex.

The convention hotel will be the soon-to-open Omni Dallas Hotel adjacent to the Dallas convention center. The APME has secured a room rate of $129 a night, an exceptional value for a hotel of this quality.

The Saturday night awards dinner and auction will be at the exclusive Fort Worth Club in downtown Fort Worth, across the street from the new offices of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News are the legacy sponsors for the 2012 convention. But two Texas universities — Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Texas Christian University in Fort Worth — will cosponsor convention transportation between the two cities and will be featured at different times in the convention program.

As of now, sessions are planned on access to electronic records, political coverage, social media and the creep of marketing into the newsroom. We’ll also announce winners in the Texas APME competition. Please build attendance into your budgets now.

September Photo of the Month

Jay Janner of the Austin American-Statesman is winner of the September Photo of the Month contest among Texas newspapers for this image of a burning house during a central Texas wildfire.

AP, members collaborate on package of stories addressing record drought

Coverage of the devastating Texas drought has been a regular part of the AP report throughout 2011, with writers Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Betsey Blaney and Angela Brown taking lead roles in reporting this ongoing story.

In late September, The Dallas Morning News and the Odessa American also contributed stories to a package by Plushnick-Masti on the state’s failure to allocate the money needed to prepare for the state’s future water needs.

Plushnick-Masti’s story recounted how a $53 billion blueprint to ensure water for Texans even in times of drought has to date received just $1.4 billion in funding, with numerous missed deadlines.

The Morning News’ Randy Loftis contributed a story that recounted the tug-of-war between Texas and Oklahoma over Texas’ attempts to bring water from southeastern Oklahoma to North Texas.

Odessa’s David Johnson added a story about the Colorado River Municipal Water District’s rush to complete a pipeline project before the spring of 2013. That’s when surface water could disappear in parts of West Texas without adequate rainfall.

Introducing AP NewsPlan: a quicker way to communicate with members

AP NewsPlan is a new, interactive website designed to enhance the communication flow between our newsroom and yours.  Editors from the AP newsroom in New York will post real-time updates on the day’s most important stories to the site and will showcase relevant text, photo, video and interactive content for top stories and enterprise around the globe.

The topics for posts will include updates on major changes to stories, insight on how the AP report is coming together, and when a story will be expected to move. Questions, comments and engagement with member editors are encouraged.

A beta version of APNewsPlan has been running with a group of members representing a wide variety of circulation sizes and geography.

AP NewsPlan is designed to augment but not replace the News Digest that has been a mainstay of AP and member newsrooms for many years  Contact Dale Leach or Barry Bedlan for more information.

Headliners Foundation launches new website to promote Texas journalism

The Headliners Foundation of Texas has launched a new website, featuring examples of excellence in journalism from across the state.

The Headliners’ Bergan Casey says the purpose of the site is twofold: to allow journalists and industry leaders a forum to promote outstanding work and to provide a platform for journalists to share information.

The site includes interviews with award-winning journalists, including SteveMcGonigle of The Dallas Morning News, whose coverage of Gov. Rick Perry’s real estate transactions earned the Morning News the award for Star Investigative Report of the Year in the Texas APME-Headliners competition.

The site also offers blogs about the state of journalism in Texas, successes and failures, and trends and tips.

You can visit the site at www.headlinersfoundation.org.

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.

A search for bodies that became a wild media goose chase

The story certainly sounded compelling: Authorities in Liberty County were investigating a tip that multiple bodies had been buried at a rural Texas farmhouse.

It was enough to send some news organizations over the edge — several of them reporting as fact the discovery of 20 to 30 bodies.
Trouble was, it turned out not to be true.

Yes, there was a tip to law enforcement officials that multiple bodies — up to 30 in a Reuters report — would be found at the house. The caller, who claimed to be a psychic, knew details about the inside of the house that made her seem credible. Traces of blood and a foul smell coming from inside were enough to trigger a search warrant.

But there were no bodies. Just some rotting meat in a broken freezer and a few embarrassed reporters.

Members relying on the AP’s coverage had no reason to worry. While the AP advised members that it was aware of the reports and had sent reporters and a photographer to the scene, we also made clear the source of the reports was unknown. The AP never reported that any bodies had been found.

The Houston Chronicle was just as cautious.

George Haj, senior editor for news at the Chronicle, said the Chronicle was immediately skeptical of the initial television report about the discovery of bodies.

“We pushed hard to answer a couple of questions – what exactly did police know vs. what they were told by a source/tipster, and where did the original tip come from,” Haj wrote.

The Chronicle was first to reach the owner of the house, a long-haul trucker who explained the blood and insisted he’d not been involved in any killings.

May Photo of the Month

Joe Gamma of the Amarillo Globe-News is winner of the May Texas Photo of the Month contest for this image from a Randall County wildfire. The Globe-News also won the state Photo of the Month contest in April.

2011 Stylebooks available with discount for members

The 2011 Associated Press Stylebook launched in May with about 500 new and updated listings since the 2010 edition. We update our spiral-bound Stylebook every year, adding new listings and updating existing ones. Of special interest this year is the addition of a food chapter, as well as an expanded social media section. Other style updates include email, cellphone, smartphone, earthquakes, CPR and bedbug.

AP members receive a discount on the Stylebook, paying $12.75 per book instead of our regular price of $19.95. We also offer a member discount on the Web-based Stylebook Online, which is updated throughout the year and which offers the ability to add your own entries and add notes to AP’s listings. Online-only features include an Ask the Editor function with archives of past answers, a pronunciation guide with phonetic spellings and audio pronouncer files and Capital IQ profiles of publicly traded companies.

Rates are based on the number of users, with pricing available either for individual named users or for concurrent users. Contact Dale Leach or Barry Bedlan for information on pricing or place your order at apstylebook.com.

Relief fund established for Joplin Globe staff members affected by tornado

The Missouri Press Association has established a disaster fund within the Missouri Press Foundation to assist Joplin Globe employees affected by last month’s tornado. All of the proceeds will go directly to affected employees.

The homes of at least 26 employees of The Globe were heavily damaged or destroyed by the tornado. A page designer at the newspaper, Bruce Baillie, 57, was killed.

Tax deductible donations to the relief fund may be made online at tinyurl.com/44szw5r. Checks can be sent to the Missouri Press Foundation, 802 Locust Street, Columbia, MO 65201.

AP Exchange/Summer School: Training focuses on business

Mark your calendar for Wednesday, June 15, from 4:30-5:30 p.m., when The Associated Press will offer specialized training on business content through “AP Exchange: Summer School.”

AP’s global business report is available to Member Choice Complete subscribers. This training class will demonstrate how to create a custom feed of content for your newspaper. We’ll also show you how to take advantage of premium financial content available to you only through AP Exchange.

Please join us for the 60-minute WebEx training session by using the call-in and Web information provided here. Join us for as much time as your schedule allows.

• Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2011
• Time: 3:30 pm, CDT
• Meeting Number: 767 828 471
• Meeting Password: biz
• To join the online meeting: click here
• Call-in number: 1-866-699-3239
• Access code:767 828 471