Valley PR Blog

How to work with the Associated Press

By Linda VandeVrede on January 28th, 2010 In Best Practices, Pitching

The Arizona Book Publishing Association hosted four members of the AP in Phoenix tonite at its January meeting.   Pauline Arrillaga, Josh Hoffner, Bob Christie and Jim Trotter gave candid advice – so if you’re hoping to work with the AP at some point, here are some valuable insights into how they operate.

Just so you understand the scope and power of the Associated Press, they were founded in 1846 and are the largest and oldest news organization in the world.   They have 4,000 employees, 240 bureaus, and more than 10 million images.   The west desk in Phoenix is one of 4 regional hubs in the U.S., including Atlanta, Philadelphia and Chicago.  In the past, NYC was the hub, but in the last year, the organization decided to establish editing centers closer to the regions they cover.  In addition to the 4 regional hubs, AP has bureaus in every state.

Among other avenues, the Associated Press gets its stories via satellite, via their roladex of trusted resources, via twitter and other social media platforms that display trending topics, and from relevant pitches they receive in their inbox. The staff’s job is to gauge the story for local and national interest. It’s a constant juggling act because they have a lot of information coming in – the Phoenix e-mail inbox alone has between 500 to 700 e-mails daily.

The AP is known for breaking news coverage and accuracy. As one of the panelists commented,”We’ll be a minute late, in order to get it right.”   They have developed an eye for what readers like to see.

Each bureau has its own mailbox that is monitored for stories. If you want to pitch a story to the Arizona Bureau, send it to aparizona@ap.org.   To increase your chances of getting through, don’t hit send until you can tell yourself that 1) it is a story that hasn’t been told before and is unique, 2) that it is part of an overall trend 3) your pitch is focused, 4)  the reason why this should story should be told is at the very top, and 5) it is something that would still matter if you lived in Peoria, Illinois.

While some of the folks at the Associated Press use services such as HARO (Help a Reporter Out) or Profnet, they especially follow twitter closely to determine what topics are trending the most, and view it as a powerful newsgathering tool.  You can also join their Facebook page (AP) as a fan to learn more information.

The writers for the Associated Press are always looking for experts. One way to get their attention is to follow the news and as soon as news breaks in your particular area, send them an e-mail with the expert for that topic and their cell phone number. That can be particularly helpful to an AP reporter who is on deadline and needs to get a story out about breaking news.   You can also send them the expert’s contact information during non-breaking news time, just so they can have it handy.

For information about licensing AP photos and related info, visit the FAQ section on the AP website, www.ap.org. 

If you see an AP story that has an error in it and you want to correct it, you can send your correction to info@ap.org.

Future predictions — newspapers will not go away.   And, while citizen journalism is a tipsheet for what’s going on, the Associated Press will always be the gold standard for accuracy.

Speaking of accuracy, two of the panelists left before I could doublecheck the spelling of their last names, so Bob and Jim, I hope I got it right!

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