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Minnesota AP Newsletter

In this edition:
Minnesota AP News
Product News
News about AP
Stock Support Contact Information

Minnesota AP News

Upcoming Events

• Feb. 18: Deadline for Minnesota AP Association news, photo and sports contests entries. Rules & entry forms posted at: www.ap.org/minnesota
• April 13: Deadline for special room rate at Radisson Riverfront Hotel, St. Paul, for annual MAPA awards meeting; 651-292-1900 or 1-800-333-3333.
• April 15: Judges' deadline for returning MAPA contest results (non-publishable, partial results move on the wire as received; complete publishable list moves when all results received).
• May 13: Annual MAPA awards banquet, Radisson Riverfront Hotel, St. Paul. Banquet speaker TBA.
• June 21: Annual Minnesota AP Sports Association meeting and awards luncheon. Star Tribune, Minneapolis.

MAPA Board Meets
The MAPA Board of Directors met Jan. 26 during the annual Minnesota Newspaper Association convention. The meeting minutes will be posted at www.ap.org/minnesota

Member Cooperation - Outstanding!

• The Independent earned Instant Citation honors for on-cycle sharing of its story when a Minnesota sailor from the Marshall area died Jan. 18 in an accident aboard the USS Ronald Reagan.
• The Pioneer was likewise honored for sharing a story and photo after an Army soldier from the Bemidji area was killed Jan. 9 while on patrol near Baghdad.
• The Daily Journal, Fergus Falls, earned an Instant Citation for sharing a story and photos when a water main break Jan.11 closed schools and left residents with little or no water pressure. A Journal reporter went the extra mile to dictate material to the Minneapolis AP before writing his paper's story.

     Member Mentions

• Denise Constans Renckens, assistant managing editor at the Post-Bulletin, has been named executive editor of The Daily Journal in Kankakee, Ill. Both newspapers are part of the Small Newspaper Group. Renckens is a Minnesota native and University of St. Thomas graduate.
• Lou Ziegler, editor of The Forum, died Jan. 29 from pancreatic cancer. Ziegler, 56, had been editor of North Dakota's largest paper since May 2000. Ziegler worked at a number of newspapers around the country, starting more than 30 years ago as a reporter at his hometown newspaper in Palmyra, N.Y.

AP Personnel Moves

• St. Paul newsman Brian Bakst has been promoted to correspondent. Bakst, a Wisconsin native, has covered seven sessions for AP, beginning not long after  he graduated from the University of Minnesota.
• Pat Condon, a newsman in Minneapolis since September, has been assigned to the Capitol as the third member of the St. Paul team. Condon, a Watertown native and University of St. Thomas graduate, is a veteran statehouse reporter and has worked at The Forum, The Minot Daily News, the Post-Bulletin and The Olympian in Washington.
• Minnesota native and former Minneapolis news editor Tom Brettingen, senior vice president and director of Newspaper and New Media Markets, has taken on the additional role of directing AP's advertising business. The move was one of several made by AP CEO Tom Curley as noted below.

Summary Boxes
Reviews for AP Minnesota's aggressive use of summary boxes are glowing. Bill Hanna, editor at the Mesabi Daily News, says a graphic artist at his paper routinely -- and quickly -- turns the boxes into a visual element by incorporating a photo with the text information.

The boxes, in use for several months for the top one or two stories moving on state and national wires, are small items that identify a story's key points. They're designed to give newspapers a ready-made layering device written with peppy subheads to pull readers into the story. Summary boxes are different from AP's standard boxes and glances in that they contain only information that's already in the story that should not need updating, even if the story changes.
 

Product News

AP WORD PUZZLES
AP has introduced new crossword and word seek puzzles from Penny Press, a leading publisher of puzzle magazines. Both types of puzzles are available 6 days a week. Crosswords increase in difficulty as the week progresses, with a special themed puzzle each Thursday. Word seeks come in a variety of appealing themes and include an interesting fact-based blurb. AP is offering an extended free trial of these exciting new products; contact me for details.

AP PAGE-READY: BASEBALL
For the second season, AP is offering Major League Baseball box scores and linescores as completely formatted and ready-to-use displays. This service spares your sports desk the time-consuming task of assembling baseball agate on deadline. You simply drag and drop the presentation onto your page and it's ready to go. The presentations offer a winning look that readers and advertisers value. Jason Winders, executive editor of the Athens Banner-Herald says, "For a newspaper with a relatively small desk staff for sports, I honestly couldn't ask for anything more. It affords us the opportunity to hold off until right before deadline on box scores, allowing us to get in the latest and greatest for our readers." Page-ready baseball samples and a flyer on other services designed to enhance your Major League Baseball coverage this season should arrive at your newspaper in coming days.

AP SPECIAL EDITION PACKAGES
Here is the existing schedule for AP's Special Edition packages for '05. This content is intended for advertorial sections -- special sections around which seasonal or specialty advertising is sold. Each package runs about 7,500 to 10,000 words, with up to 10 accompanying pictures. Content is accessed via an ftp site; watch for an advisory on the AP wire with details on the date each package becomes available.

• Feb. 8 -- Your Home
• March 8 -- Style/Fashion
• April 12 -- Gardening
• May 10 -- Summer Travel News about AP

EXIT POLL EVALUATION RELEASED
On Jan.19, the exit pollsters for the National Election Pool released a report on how their operation performed on Election Day 2004. They found a number of problems with the way the polls were carried out, resulting in estimates that overstated John Kerry's share of the vote. Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International laid out their findings to NEP, the consortium of news organizations that includes ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News and AP. Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said: "We're pleased that the report is finally out and that people will have an opportunity to know exactly what we know happened on election night. But the report clearly identifies some problems that need further scrutiny, and we support Edison and Mitofsky continuing to devote some serious energy to understanding those problems." A copy of the report and an AP story about the findings are available on AP.org: http://www.ap.org/pages/about/whatsnew/whatsnew.html

DONNA NAMED SENIOR VP FOR INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Jim Donna has been named AP's senior vice president for international business. Donna has been director of human resources since 1994 and a senior vice president since 2003. Jessica Bruce, vice president of human resources, succeeds Donna. In other changes announced by AP president and CEO Tom Curley, AP's broadcast services worldwide, including London-headquartered APTN, now report to Vice President and Director of Broadcast Services Jim Williams, who is based at the Broadcast News Center in Washington, D.C. As part of Tom Brettingen's change in responsibilities noted above, senior vice president John Keitt focuses on his role as AP's general counsel.

STOCKS SUPPORT UPDATE -- AP Markets Information Contacts

• Main Stocks Number: 1-800-3AP-STOX or 212-621-1540
• Markets Web site: http://markets.ap.org
• Main stocks e-mail address: stocks@ap.org -- If you want to add or subtract a stock to your listings, please send it here. Most requests are turned around within 24 hours.
• To join our stocks advisory list: E-mail Brad Skillman directly at bqskillman@ap.org with a list of contacts.  Learn about potential delays, pricing problems, holiday announcements or new products.

©2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.