Editing wire stories

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Editing wire stories

• How they are a tool
• What the danger spots are

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Editing wire stories Some background

• Wire editors are also called telegraph editors
  from how stories were delivered in the Civil War
  era and beyond. These stories arrived from some
  external source, even the papers own
  correspondents. Now, these stories are delivered
  electronically for a fee, of course.
• The Associated Press is the worlds biggest wire
  service serving 1,500-plus U.S. newspapers and
  6,000 broadcast entities. It has more than 15,000
  clients worldwide, many of them Web-based. AP has
  bureaus throughout the world and U.S.,
  including several in Texas (Dallas, Houston,
  Austin etc.) United Press International is much
  smaller it went bankrupt in the 1980s and has
  since reorganized. Reuters (Britain) and Agence
  France Presse (France) are two of the larger
  international wire services.
• Client organizations pay for the rights to use
  wire copy. In turn, the client can also agree to
  provide its copy for the wire service. For
  instance, electronic copies of all Chronicle
  stories automatically are sent to the AP.

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Editing wire stories The Chronicle

• The Chronicle obtains stories, photos, graphics
  and now audio
• and video (AP) -- from a variety of wire
  services, including the
• New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Post,
  McClatchy
• News Service (formerly Knight-Ridder), Newscom,
  Bloomberg
• News Service, Newhouse, and others. This content
  is used both
• in the print and Web products. The Hearst wire
  service provides
• stories etc. to some of those listed above.
• The Chronicle had five wire editors on the
  newsdesk (the desk
• has evolved) and there are wire editors attached
  to the business
• and online desks. Copy editors handle the wire
  duties in the
• features, sports and editorial departments. The
  newsdesk wire
• editors handle the daily national and
  international wire copy, the
• Newsmakers page, wire obits, state wires (once
  the State desk
• leaves) and provide advance copy for Sunday
  editions and
• holiday sections. They also now have to assist
  with providing
• content for the Chronicle Web page.

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Editing wire stories News judgment

• Wire editors have to be cognizant of
• The size of the news hole (even the Web has
  limits, although story cuts made for print can
  often be restored)
• The significance of the story (importance and/or
  human interest)
• Optional leads, writethrus, adds, correx, subs,
  new ledes etc. These are all wire terms that
  mean changes in words, paragraphs or whole
  stories may be necessary.
• Wire services do not tailor copy for a particular
  client. They
• arent localized. Wire services are not sacred
  their copy
• can be used whole or trimmed as needed. Also,
  while
• generally accurate, they are capable of making
  some big errors.

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Editing wire stories Danger zones

• Some classic boo-boos
• The wrong verdict was sent out in the Lindbergh
  kidnap/murder case. The writer forgot to delete
  the not in front of guilty in a pre-written
  story about the impending verdict.
• Confusing boxer George Foreman with former
  Vikings running back Chuck Foreman the latter
  received a new name.
• First day story on the AM Bonfire tragedy,
  referring to the student Bonfire construction
  coordinators as pot heads (rather than red
  pots or white pots)

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Editing wire stories Danger zones

• Peculiarities to watch for in wire stories
• Datelines, wire credits, time elements Stories
  dont die off the wires at midnight be wary of
  day-old news.
• Transition Updates and interjecting material
  from a variety of wire sources into one story may
  create flow problems.
• Style and spelling Not all the wire services
  follow AP style. Courtesy titles, Khadafy vs.
  Quaddafi, Koran vs. Quran, Mumbai vs. Bombay,
  etc. Reuters uses British spellings.
• Overlapping jurisdiction A communications
  problem. A Barry Bonds grand jury story will be
  on news and sports wires so who gets it? The
  Olympic torch protests?
• Reuters Often too fast on the trigger, less
  reliable
• Ethical pitfalls standards may differ from one
  service to the next McClatchy identified the
  Duke case accuser

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Editing wire stories Danger zones

• Communication / Duplication This is an addendum
  to the overlapping jurisdiction item. Sometimes
  two wire editors will double team a big story
  one is responsible for the Page 1 copy while
  another takes care of the inside pages. While
  some content overlap may be unavoidable, the wire
  editors need to make sure the sidebar(s) is not
  overly duplicative.
• Competing wire services will often file on the
  same subject, sometimes days after the first
  story has appeared. Same story, but different
  byline so beware. Or, updates on a breaking
  story may not move the story forward that much.
  You have to read your product!

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Editing wire stories Danger zones

• Localization Wire editors often try to localize
  stories to their particular market. They look for
  local angles (Houston-area troops killed in Iraq)
  and try to answer the readers so why should I
  care question. The wire editor can insert staff
  copy into a wire story or feed wire material into
  a staff-bylined story. For example, the Kurt
  Vonnegut obit in the Chronicle used a photo from
  the authors 1998 commencement address at Rice.
  The TWA 800 explosion killed three members of a
  Houston family, making a national story into a
  local one as well. Conversely, a wire story about
  the shots used to stem the effects of nerve gas
  being a possible cause of Gulf War Syndrome
  failed to include comments from local veterans or
  even mention that there is a VA hospital in
  Houston.

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Editing wire stories

• Some wire vocabulary
• News alert, bulletin, urgent, flash.
• Lede, take, write-thru, optional lead

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Optional leads

• LAS VEGAS (AP) - One key prosecution
• witness contradicted the account of
• another Friday, saying he used a key to
• admit O.J. Simpson and a group of men
• to a hotel room to claim Simpson's
• property, denying there was a military
• style invasion.''
• I had a key and I let them in,'' said
• Thomas Riccio. Nobody was busting
• the door down.''
• Riccio, a memorabilia dealer who set
• up the Sept. 13 hotel room meeting that
• led to Simpson's arrest on robbery and
• other charges, also said the former
• football star told him he never saw a
• gun during the confrontation.
• But Riccio said he saw a man wave a
• gun near his face as hundreds of items
• were being taken from two other

• LAS VEGAS (AP) - A tiny room at a low-
• end hotel. Thousands of dollars worth
• of sports memorabilia spread out on the
• lone King bed. Nine men yelling about
• the stuff before some of them start
• hauling it away in boxes and pillow
• cases.
• Tom Riccio's description of the chaotic
• scene that led to O.J. Simpson's arrest
• was cinematic and at times comedic
• until he got to the part where Riccio says
• someone pulled out a gun.
• At that point, there was no turning
• back,'' the collectibles broker said.
• Riccio testified Friday in the second day
• of an evidentiary hearing to determine if
• Simpson, 60, Clarence C.J.'' Stewart
• and Charles Ehrlich, both 53, should be
• tried on 12 criminal charges, including

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Editing wire stories

• The present and future
• Take a quick look at www.apexchange.com

12
Editing wire stories exercise

• Story edit for a grade
• Consider the AP story, Dallas Morning News and LA
  Times stories and decide how you will put
  together a Page One story on the Bush-Obama
  visit. You can re-top the AP story, just freshen
  one of the longer stories, mix and match the
  stories or just use one story your choice.
• Note the usual land mines.
• Write a 3-36-2 headline
• Trim to about 20 paragraphs