The AP in Pennsylvania

Fraser named interim bureau chief in New Jersey

Pennsylvania Assistant Chief of Bureau Andrew Fraser has been named interim bureau chief for New Jersey, based in Trenton. Fraser came to Philadelphia in April 2006 from Miami, where he was AP news editor for Florida. Before rejoining the AP in Miami, he was deputy national editor and deputy money and investing editor for The Wall Street Journal Online. He joined the AP for the first time in 1986 as an intern in New York. He then worked for the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, NY, and for the AP as a newsman in Hartford, Conn., and as a reporter and editor for the AP’s business news department in New York. His new duties in Trenton begin Nov. 17.

AP Board approves further rate reductions; AP to undertake review of membership structure

The Associated Press will reduce U.S. newspaper member assessments by another $9 million next year and immediately begin a re-examination of the AP membership structure. By the middle of 2009, AP will complete a review of its pricing and governance structure, re-examining all current policies and rules, such as the two-year notice now required for leaving the news cooperative, and considering other potential changes, including the creation of different classes of membership and services. In the meantime, the AP Board of Directors voted at its quarterly meeting in New York to provide all member newspapers complete access to all AP text content, at no extra cost. In addition, it voted to approve a moratorium on the rate increases that a minority of newspapers were expected to see in 2009 under the current AP pricing structure. AP estimates these steps will save newspapers another $9 million, on top of the nearly $21 million in savings previously announced in rate assessment reductions.

Read more about U.S. newspaper rate reductions at http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pressreleases/pr_102308a.html.

See innovation in action with Member Choice

To see live examples of how AP member newspaper and Web sites are using expanded Member Choice content and licensing in new ways, check out www.ap.org/choice. You’ll find an “Innovation in Action” toolkit with early examples we have of members doing interesting things with Member Choice content. The downloadable guide will be updated as more innovations get started.

In addition, the site offers links to research on the news media evolution, such as Outsell and other resources.

Member Choice reflects the biggest change in AP newspaper services in its 162 years. AP is overhauling text services to give newspapers access to a broad database of content, including stories from all 50 state wires and AP’s English-language international reporting, as well as business, sports and entertainment. It introduces content-management and search tools to give access to more locally relevant content that would support niche and targeted local publications in print and online. Expanded licensing makes it easier for members to innovate with new revenue-enhancing products.

For more information, contact your local chief of bureau.

AP launches Mobile News Network on BlackBerry smart phones

The Associated Press launched a new Mobile News Network client application optimized for BlackBerry® smart phones from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM). The Mobile News Network application for BlackBerry smart phones is now available for free download at bb.apnews.com. Launched in May, the award-winning Mobile News Network is a multimedia news portal providing anytime access to international, national and local news content from an unrivalled network of local media sources. With the emergence of innovative smart phone devices, AP wanted to offer a tailored version of the Mobile News Network for BlackBerry smart phone users on the go. The application supports all BlackBerry devices such as the BlackBerry® Curve™ and BlackBerry® Pearl™ series smart phones (including the new Flip phone) as well as the new BlackBerry® Bold™.

The launch of the BlackBerry smart phone version follows AP’s recently announced milestones that the Mobile News Network received more than 16 million page views and more than one million local stories were read in the month of August. For the month of September, the Mobile News Network received more than 26 million page views and more than 1.5 million local stories were read. Today, the network covers the entire 100 top designated market areas and boasts a growing number of content contributors – more than 1,000 news organizations signed up to provide local news stories. In August, the Mobile News Network spanned across 948 organizations and has since grown to 1,004 member and affiliate outlets.

Read more about the Mobile News Network application for BlackBerry smart phones at http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pressreleases/pr_102008a.html.

The Mobile News Network site can be accessed on all mobile devices by visiting www.apnews.com.

AP Money & Markets makes sense of financial markets

AP offers consumer-oriented, analytic markets info for all formats. Money & Markets Online keeps readers up-to-the-minute during the trading day, with stock lookups and analytic tools. Money & Markets for print offers investment info – stocks, mutual funds, commodities, interest rates and more – with modules aimed at daily and weekend readers.

With markets gyrating daily, your readers want information they can trust and that helps them make sense of what’s happening.

For more information and examples of Money & Markets, check out www.ap.org/markets.

AP selects new technology provider for Online Video Network

The AP has selected thePlatform, a Seattle-based video technology provider, to launch a more flexible, enhanced version of its Online Video Network, which distributes AP’s acclaimed video content to more than 2,000 newspaper, broadcast and other media Web sites throughout the U.S.

Rollout of the new technology platform, to be completed by December, will provide members using OVN with greater ability to showcase their own news video as well as to offer higher quality video for AP’s coverage of world events, which most recently included the Summer Olympics in Beijing, the U.S. presidential campaign and the hurricanes that hit Haiti, Louisiana and Texas.

AP’s Online Video Network provides in-depth video reports specifically designed for viewing on the Internet. Launched in 2006, the network now reaches 61 million unduplicated unique visitors through its 2,100 affiliate sites. OVN’s technology platform, initially licensed by Microsoft, will now be licensed from thePlatform, an industry leader in the broadband video management and publishing market and a subsidiary of Comcast. In addition to offering enhanced content, AP will offer network affiliates for the first time a fully embeddable video player for video destination pages.

To read more about AP’s selection of a new OVN technology provider, visit http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pressreleases/pr_092308a.html.

AP Mobile News Network swings into U.S. Cellular® markets

The Associated Press and U.S. Cellular (NYSE: USM) launched two mobile Web sites tailored for U.S. Cellular customers across the country. The content distribution deal offers a gateway to both AP’s popular Mobile News Network, which provides top international, national and local news. The AP Mobile News Network WAP site is accessible through U.S. Cellular’s easyedgeSM To Go, nWeb browser and the newly launched Mobile Browser. More than six million customers in 26 states can access two new AP mobile sites featuring the latest news.

Read more at http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pressreleases/pr_102908a.html. The Mobile News Network can be accessed on all mobile devices by visiting www.apnews.com.

Special Editions

The "Holidays" Special Edition moved Nov. 4, and consisted of six feature stories with photos and multimedia. Stories included a guide to gifts for teenagers; tips for day-to-night hair styling; a look at lucky New Year’s foods; the history of tree ornaments; a trend story on Jews who do community service on Christmas; and a survey of the various and offbeat cousins to the New Year’s Eve ball drop that take place around the country each year, from a pickle drop to a carp drop.

The final package for the 2008 AP Special Editions:
· Dec. 9 – Weddings

2009 Calendar for Special Editions:
·         January – Taxes
·         February – Get Started
·         March – Pets
·         April – Your Career
·         May – Outdoors
·         June – Weddings
·         July – Back to School
·         August – Fall Homes/Housekeeping 101
·         September – Cars
·         October – Diet/Exercise
·         November – Holidays
·         December - Wedding

Beats of the week

Palin travel records

When Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin released her family's tax records, some tax experts questioned why she did not report as income the reimbursements she had claimed for her children's travel. Brett Blackledge, a Washington-based reporter on assignment in Anchorage, decided to take a look at her travel records. Adam Goldman, also on assignment from New York, asked for the state's flight logs. Blackledge compiled a list of travel dates, destinations, types of flights and purpose of trips in a spreadsheet. Each daughter's travel was sorted by dates to find when, where and how they traveled - as a family, on a state plane, a commercial flight, with the governor or not. Next, he compiled a list of events and organizers. Then Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, another Washington-based reporter, called them to learn if they had invited the children. Some organizers said they were surprised the children had appeared, others said they made room for the kids after the governor's staff asked them to.

Finally, the team matched some "official" trips with personal family matters, like Todd Palin's snowmobile race. When they were done, working under the direction of national investigative editor Rick Pienciak, AP had one of the most-talked-about stories of the week. Readers learned that Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business. The AP exclusive garnered extraordinary play: More than 36 hours later it was still most read/viewed, most recommended and most e-mailed on Yahoo News. CNN's Anderson Cooper gave it 10 minutes at the top of his show, and Larry King did a nice bit as well. It even popped up on Saturday Night Live!

NASCAR photos

NASCAR driver Carl Edwards caused a 12-car pileup at Talladega, angering several rivals, including Kevin Harvick. Days later, the two men got into a dispute at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte. Witnesses described it as just a heated argument. But AP's NASCAR writer Jenna Fryer knew that photographers for the track and for a stock photo agency had images that would show whatever really happened. At first, the agencies refused to let her see the photos. So Fryer leaned on the speedway, NASCAR and others. Among her arguments: If the photographers were going to be allowed to work in the media center, then they should act like media and release the photos. Finally, she received a call from a source: "I've got something you want." The photos clearly showed the altercation was more serious than initially described, including Edwards grabbing Harvick by the neck.

Nobel interview

When Stockholm correspondent Malin Rising nailed a rare interview with a top member of the Swedish Academy jury that awards the Nobel Prize in literature, she knew it wouldn't be easy to make news. She pursued a line of questioning worked out in advance with Hillel Italie, the New York-based reporter who covers the publishing industry. Why, she asked, have so many recent winners been European? The answer by Horace Engdahl was startling: American writers, he said, are in general "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture," dragging down the quality of their work. Italie gathered sharp reaction from American literary figures. The double-byline story received prominent play around the world and launched numerous debates in newspapers and Web sites.