Contributing to AP

News Contributions - How and What to Contribute

The Ohio AP offers $100 for the best news tip of the month. Tips must be about an event that couldn’t have been foreseen, such as a fatal explosion, a plane crash, or the death of a prominent person. Tips can be called in to the Columbus AP bureau at (800) 762-4841 or (614) 885-2727, or to your local AP bureau.

You can submit a story to AP by e-mailing cboe@ap.org (members only) or by faxing to (614) 885-3248. When e-mailing, paste the story in your e-mail – attachments aren’t accepted.

Here are some points to consider before offering a story to AP. The list is not intended to be all-encompassing, but to provide ideas for the kinds of stories AP members find most useful. If you're not sure whether to offer your story, give us a call at ( 800) 762-4841 or (614) 885-2727.

WEATHER AND OTHER DISASTERS

YES:

• Major fires
• Outbreaks of disease
• Severe weather and its effects, including tornadoes, ice and hail storms, heavy snows, damaging rains, record heat or cold
• Commercial plane crashes
• Small plane crashes involving fatalities or unusual circumstances
• Train derailments or wrecks
• Explosions
• Chemical spills causing injuries, evacuations or significant environmental damage, or that shut down highways

NO:

• Minor storm damage
• Minor or non-fatal fires, unless they are unusual

CRIME/COURTS

YES:

• Major crimes
• Riots
• Arrests, formal charges and verdicts in court cases of statewide interest

NO:

• Routine developments in routine trials (such as pre-trial motions, changes of venue or judge and minor changes of charges)
• Routine assaults
• Petty crimes
• Non-fatal shootings, stabbings or beatings unless factors make the attacks unusual, e.g. the victim or assailant is well-known or the mode of attack is unusual
• Minor bank robberies
• Routine traffic fatalities
• Bomb scares, unless they cause significant evacuations, close city blocks or otherwise cause major disruption of normal activities

DRUGS

YES:

• Major drug busts and raids
• Drug cases involving shootouts or prominent people, or that are unusual
• New anti-drug laws or unusual anti-drug programs

NO:

• Drug busts/arrests involving less than 100 pounds of processed marijuana or a kilo of cocaine, unless there are unusual circumstances

MURDERS

YES:

• Multiple murders
• Single-victim murders that involve unusual circumstances, a prominent person or happen outside the metropolitan areas, where murders are common. Offer stories on the incident, arrests, formal charges and verdicts only, except in high-profile cases of statewide interest when changes in dates, venue or charges occur

NO:

• Routine one-victim murders in big cities, where murders are more common
• Stories on routine developments in low-profile homicide trials.

DEATHS/SUICIDES

YES:

• Accidental deaths, including those in farm accidents
• Fatal plane crashes
• Major fires
• Any death involving unusual circumstances
• Deaths of prominent public figures
• Cases of murder-suicide

NO:

• Suicides, unless they are unusual or they involve a prominent person
• Routine accidental deaths in major metropolitan areas

TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS

YES:

• Traffic fatalities that involve multiple deaths, unusual circumstances or prominent people
• Accidents that involve chemical spills or close highways

NO:

• Routine one-victim traffic fatalities (note exceptions above)

DROWNINGS

YES:

• On routine single-victim drownings, offer stories only when the drowning is reported -- and again if there is late identification of the victim and recovery of the body. When a prominent person or multiple victims are involved, AP may request daily stories on the search.

NO:

• Daily search stories on routine drownings

BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY

YES:

• Labor strikes, layoffs, demonstrations, announcements of new plants or of major expansions, business or plant closings, takeovers, significant plant accidents or fatalities, major lawsuits, farm news

NO:

• Annual reports on small companies, minor plant accidents

GOVERNMENT/PUBLIC MEETINGS

YES:

• Meetings where action of statewide or regional interest is taken or where a prominent person speaks and says something newsworthy. Include speech quotes. Please let the bureau know in advance about meetings you think will be of interest, providing background if you have it.

NO:

• Routine city or county meetings, speeches by public figures who don't say anything newsworthy

FEATURES

YES:

• Feature/human interest items, off-beat stories or brites of regional, state or national appeal

NO:

• Feature/human interest stories that wouldn't be of interest to someone outside your coverage area

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

YES:

• Stories in which the media or members of the public are having government access (FOI) problems.

Photo Contributions

The Ohio AP photo report …

is only as good as you – its member photographers and photo editors – make it. We need your breaking news photos, stand-alone features and photos that accompany feature stories.

Transmitting Poster
This pdf file was distributed to Ohio members several years ago and continues to be the best general guide for sending photos to the State Photo Center.

YES:

The AP always needs good feature photos. A strong feature picture can stand on its own merits or go with a story. It ought to be visually compelling and of good technical quality.

On spot news photos, the key is timeliness. Remember to ask yourself, "Would we run a news photo that is x days old?" For a DAILY newspaper it defeats the purpose to hold onto your spot news photos until the next day.

The AP covers all the major sports events. But if you have an outstanding photo that is unusual, feel free to transmit it to the AP.

NO:

Check passings, ground breakings, minor car accidents, minor fires, etc.

But of course there's always an exception - even with the above examples, an unusual occurrence or humorous situation could arise that might make for an interesting picture. Even a Rotary Club meeting could be visually interesting when the unexpected occurs.

But one rule is solid - don't even THINK of transmitting a photo that has been digitally altered.

If you have a photo The AP could use, there is a way to get it to us.

FTP – the preferred method - If you have an Internet browser that supports ftp, or an ftp client and Internet access, use file transfer protocol (ftp) to transfer your photos from a desktop folder directly to the server at the State Photo Center in Washington.

Request a username and password with an e-mail to State Photos Technical Support. You can also call the State Photo Center, (888) 273-6867, or Ohio Photo Editor Kii Sato in the Columbus bureau, (888) 315-8184, to request the information.

Once you have a username and password, open Netscape or your ftp client and log in to ftp://username:password@165.1.59.7. Drag and drop your photo into the Netscape window or use the ftp client to transfer it to the photo server.

BBS - The bulletin board system does not require an Internet connection, is toll-free and requires free client software on your Mac or PC. The software can be downloaded from the bulletin board using any dialup communications program. If you need the software but don’t want to download it, contact the State Photo Center to have it sent to you.

E-MAIL - This is a last-resort method to send your photos to the State Photo Center. Use it only if ftp or bbs fail. Submit by e-mail.

It’s important after all transmissions to call the State Photo Center, (888) 273-6867, to confirm your photo arrived safely and answer any questions the photo editors may have.

Contributing
to the AP

News Contributions

Photo Contributions

2007 Photo Contributions Spreadsheet (pdf)

2007 Tipstar Winners (pdf)