 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
South
Dakota Report
February 2006 Sioux Falls Last Call to Add AP's Special Online Coverage of Winter Olympics to Your Web Site AP's special online presentation on the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, is now live. You can still add this hosted product to your Web site for the rest of February. It offers indepth coverage on all the athletes, venues, competitions and medals -- featuring stories, photos, graphics, audio and video. The fee is a one-time flat rate, so the sooner you sign up the more days you'll have to promote and sell ads around this content. Save newshole by covering the highlights in your printed pages and sending readers to your Web site for the details. Here are two sites already using the OLY content: Spokane News Review at http://www.spokesmanreview.com/ and the Fort Collins Coloradoan at http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage. AP Introduces New Travel Content For Print and Web Use Members have been requesting more travel content for their Web sites, and here it is. AP's new Travel Online service will answer the need for expanded coverage of destinations, travel tips, blogs, currency rates and more. Travel advertising is increasingly moving to the Web, and here's a chance for you to draw some of those dollars to your Web site. AP offers a two-year archive of consumer travel stories -- how to get the best hotel deal, how to locate the cheapest fares -- and more. New content will be posted each week, plus we'll consolidate travel-related stories from all AP wires. These stories are all produced by veteran AP journalists, living and working around the world. AP travel stories carry the independent, objective stamp of all AP reporting. The travel content is available for both Web and print. Free Online Video Network Launches March 1 -- Sign Up Now This should be an easy decision for anyone wanting todraw more viewers to his Web site, and keep them coming back. AP is offering a free online video service that will offer 50 news videos a day on a wide range of topics, from top world news to animals and strange news. There is NO CHARGE to the member newspaper. The video service is completely supported by ads the AP sells into the videos. Watch for the Online Video agreement coming in the mail this month and be sure to take advantage of this great addition to your Web site. AP Promotes National Sunshine Week, March 12-18; Join South Dakota Observance Sunshine Week is an opportunity for the news media to call attention to the importance of openness in government. AP will provide stories on both the national and state level for the week of March 12-18. South Dakotans for Open Government is again sponsoring an art and essay contest for students and adults with first prizes of $250 in each category. SDOG also is offering speakers to address openness issues at local service clubs or on talk shows. If you need a rotary speaker, please call COB Haraldson at 800-952-9911. The SDNA will distribute more information, including ads and editorial talking points. Speed Up Production of Your Sports Pages With AP Page-Ready: Baseball More and more newspapers are finding value in the service AP offers that creates a template with all major league baseball boxes, ready to go on your page at your deadline. You'll know the size of the template early in the day, so you can work on the rest of your page and finish up with a single download of the finished template, ready to go to press. If your deadline falls before the last game is in, no problem. The template will be filled with statistics or other baseball information. And the next day you'll get the game you missed in addition to the new ones. Page-Ready: Baseball saves time and creates a good-looking presentation that enhances your page. Call COB Tena Haraldson for prices. AP Hosts Media Tour of New SD Crime Lab and Update on Meth Labs Nearly 50 people accepted AP's invitation to tour the new law enforcement center and crime lab in Pierre on January 26, followed by a reception with most of the public information officers for state departments. Attorney General Larry Long arranged for four separate groups to tour the building, alternating with a presentation on meth labs in the new theater and emergency management center. U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth joined in a panel discussion of funding for law enforcement and other issues. AP provided packets of information on the new building, along with a Reporter's Handbook on covering criminal cases.
Happy 160th Birthday--Rewriting History at the AP New documents given to the AP archive prove that AP actually started in 1846 during the Mexican War, not in 1848 as previously thought. The year 1848 had been accepted by journalism historians -- and the AP itself -- as the birth date of history's first major wire service. But papers recently provided to AP's corporate archives show the world's oldest and largest newsgathering organization was born in New York during the U.S. war with Mexico, in 1846. The documents came from Brewster Yale Beach -- whose great-great-grandfather was the second owner of the New York Sun and a driving force in creating the AP. Currently underway is a project involving nearly 20 writers, editors and researchers working on a new history of the AP. **Important** If you have any old objects or papers related to the AP, please let COB Haraldson know. Old files, correspondence, contracts, books, printers, and other equipment is being sought for the corporate archive. Top Stories from the AP -- Did These Stories Run in Your Newspaper? Pierre Correspondent Chet Brokaw grabbed front pages for a week early in January with stories compiled from his annual pre-session survey of South Dakota lawmakers. This year, Brokaw got responses from 99 of the 105 members of the Legislature and wrote stories about what lawmakers felt about the troubled State Fair, education, abortion and bills that would regulate where sex offenders could live.
Sioux Falls Newsman Dirk Lammers' feature story on the life of aspiring young hockey hopefuls who play for the Sioux Falls Stampede and other teams in the U.S. Hockey League was used as a weekend sports feature on the national wire.
Sioux Falls Newswoman Doris Haugen crafted an outside-the-Capitol enterprise story dealing with a legislative issue when she traveled to Watertown, where the high school already has a program that puts laptop computers into the hands of all high school students. South Dakota's governor wants to do the same statewide.
Lammers noticed a small item that said a new turkey processing plant near Huron actually was up and running with almost no fanfare. Lammers contacted company officials, who said workers are processing turkeys at the new $45 million plant and that production should be up to 14,000 birds a day within a couple of weeks.
Lammers also traveled to Hillsview, the smallest incorporated town in South Dakota, and interviewed all three residents about the town's storied past and its bleak future. His story, complete with photos, a sidebar and list, got front-page play in member papers.
Washington Regional Writer Mary Clare Jalonick made the national wire with her early January story about former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, who gave away $230,000 in campaign cash to vulnerable members of his party. He may also be thinking about his own future. A spokesman said Daschle, who has not ruled out a run for president in 2008, raised the money last year for Democrats in Congress.
Pierre Correspondent Chet Brokaw protected AP members nationwide with his story of a state Supreme Court ruling that reinstates the law license of former U.S. Rep. Bill Janklow on Feb. 15, a year before his probation ends in the case of his conviction for a fatal traffic crash.
Papers statewide gave good play to Sioux Falls Newsman Carson Walker's story quoting U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth as saying she will run for re-election. Walker also interviewed the state Republican Party chairman, who said the GOP has three or four potential challengers to the popular Democrat.
Walker, who diligently checked his court beat, was the first to learn that a former Alcester woman changed her plea and admitted to putting her newborn baby in trash that ended up in a Nebraska landfill _ claiming she was afraid of how her boyfriend would react. The continuing story has gotten good play in three states, and Walker's January story was on the national wire.
Quick work by Jalonick allowed the Sioux Falls desk to fast-file word that President Bush had appointed an Oklahoman rather than a South Dakotan to be the interim U.S. attorney in South Dakota. The action rebuked the earlier appointment by a federal judge of former state Attorney General Mark Meierhenry to the post.
Just before the deadline for filing bills in the South Dakota Legislature, Brokaw found out that a long-time abortion foe would introduce a bill that would ban abortions in the state. Some thought the measure, if passed, could become a vehicle to overturn Roe V. Wade.
January Story and Photo Contributions from Members Here are January story contribution numbers from the newspaper members:
The American News made a special effort to provide a mug shot of the South Dakota civilian who was killed in Iraq. The American News also provided a photo of the funeral scene. Dawn Dietrich and John Davis each contributed a shot of a spot news story -- the collapse of a huge crane in Aberdeen. Lara Neel of the Argus Leader protected the AP with several photos of Gov. Rounds' speech in Beresford launching his education initiative. The photos accompanied an AP byline story. (AP staff also provided 58 pictures; AP freelancers 25.)
The South Dakota Report is an update on news and activities involving The Associated Press and its members. Questions and comments should go to COB Tena Haraldson, 800-952-9911 or tharaldson@ap.org.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||