ASNE - Using wire copy

Briefs. The foreign briefs package is very much a staple in today's newspapers. Briefs packages could be strengthened if they...

"The best training, the best resource that a gatekeeper on a small paper has is the wire."

-Edward Seaton, 1998-99 president, American Society of Newspaper Editors

Are selected with purpose.
Contain some explanatory context.
Are not just a willy-nilly collection of the day's mayhem.
Balance crisis stories with some leavening items.

Here's a great chance to use the priorities mentioned earlier (page 27) to give more coherence and relevance to the briefs package.

Handling longer stories. With 400 to 500 stories coming in over the wires daily, it's a struggle to select those four or five full-length international stories in the Monday-through-Saturday editions. Usually it comes down to breaking events and fresh developments in ongoing crises. The news editor usually depends largely on the wire digests for guidance.

The wire editor can look for stories that...

Present a provocative human-interest feature from abroad.
Illuminate a social trend.
Offer a clear analysis of a complicated issue.
Are of particular local interest that's connected in some way to the community.
Are inherently important (deemed to have a major impact on public affairs).
Are intrinsically compelling (touch a common chord).
Are especially well written and/or presented.

... or, in other words, good journalism.

Boiling down a substantive story into a meaningful brief is no easy task. USA Today and Bloomberg News are among those that have elevated this to an art form, and the financial news service has issued precise guidelines to its staff on how to do it (page 45).

"We need to develop people who know how to edit the wires."

-Susan Deans, editor, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C.

To take some pressure off the wire editor, some papers utilize someone outside the rim to monitor the wire with an eye for that special story. It might be a deputy managing editor, a rewrite specialist, or a reporter with international interests. This usually is someone who has the ear of the wire editor or news editor, and can say: "Here's one we could use on Page One if we localize it."

Context. Neither readers nor editors should have to work at finding out why they are being invited to read a story. Harried editors at community papers need more help from the wires and syndicates in this regard.

"We're going snow blind reporting all the snowflakes ... We need to achieve the proper context for these episodic stories on the wire."

-Douglas Clifton, executive editor, The Miami Herald

If the AP runs 80 international stories a day amidst a file of some 400, maybe a half-dozen of them make it to the digest of top stories and Page One advisories. Even if a wire editor scrolls through every one, guidance is in order on why particular stories (say, those 600 words or more in length) are significant enough to merit publishing.

The AP circulates a weekly international calendar to give editors a heads-up on important upcoming events overseas and why they are seen as important. It runs Friday afternoons.

How one presents context often requires a "feel" for the audience, finding a way to enlighten readers without patronizing them. The residents of a sheet-metal processing town may not need to be told that a nationwide miners' strike in Bolivia is important to them, but it would be vital to know if the strike will specifically affect tin and copper exports. Even better would be a statement from the local plant CEO providing that information. Here, the inventory and map (page 26) come in handy.

The Keene (N.H.) Sentinel obligates the wire editor to scroll through every wire story - state, regional, national and international - and to hunt for either an offbeat international feature or a story that is ripe for local tailoring. Even if there's no time to do local follow-up for that day's edition (and there usually isn't), one or two paragraphs of context and local relevance are inserted by the desk.

The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., has launched an experiment with the AP to get more regionally targeted news from abroad by making requests to the agency's international desk through the Seattle bureau. Sample story: How India and Pakistan use Northwestern white wheat, which those countries import in large quantities.

"We need to broaden the mandate and tell the story better ... go beyond 'comma, he said' journalism."

-Bill Aheam, executive editor, The Associated Press

Does the wire editor know what the priorities are? Is the wire editor encouraged to offer judgments about stories, or it just a matter of going along with what the AP digest says?

Working with The Associated Press...

AP's international desk in New York cannot keep track of every local priority around the country, but the agency's state bureaus can play a greater role in taking specific requests.

One tangible innovation would be for member newspapers to send their international priority lists to their AP bureau. From those, the agency's state staff can get a clearer picture of international news needs throughout their jurisdiction, and either target stories accordingly on the state wire or point out stories of particular local interest on the A wire.

AP's state and regional bureaus could also monitor the foreign report with an eye toward producing relevant sidebars, with back-up guidance from New York.

If wire editors feel they are not getting enough context or background on international stories of particular interest, they have an option besides asking the AP to do it: Compose their own "boilerplate" and keep it close by for insertion when necessary.

But don't be shy about asking for more, especially copy that can leaven the "doom and gloom" (e.g., where to send relief donations after a natural disaster).

Feedback is important to the membership cooperative. In addition to sending tear sheets, tell the agency about the strengths of a particular story - especially those that are compelling to local readers. Also, if an ongoing story from abroad has become too confusing (e.g. events in the former Yugoslavia), advise the AP that it's time for another Q-and-A primer.