AP Stylebook: "More than" and "over" now mean the same thing

The upset here is Moddy has not posted on this thread.

 

And ... this is what I was talking about.

 

Whole lot of editors are gonna stick with more than.

 

Don't you mean more than/less than?

 

Does AP even print new stylebooks anymore? I'm being serious here.

My guess is they make you pay extra for their online style guide.

And as others have noted, each newsroom can alter AP style as editors and reporters see fit.

For example, our shop changes all AP references to "the Great Recession" in business and news stories. There was nothing great about it, and it was not comparable to the Great Depression. Stupid, stupid phrase.

 

I think this whole debate will be more than when he finally logs back on.

 

What do you change it to?

 

the recession, or, if needed, the 2008 recession. No Great, no caps.

 

The "over"-as-quantity usage has existed for hundreds of years, with not one instance of anyone mistaking it for a spatial relationship. The prohibition against it is an American newspaper affectation, and a relatively new one at that. It's a made-up invention for a made-up problem. Good riddance to the rule. I'd much rather let the few copy editors we have left deal with real problems than spend even a minute chasing phantoms.

 

This killed me.

 

Not even close to the same thing. "Ain't" is slang, and "and also" is redundant. As explained below, over has been used without incident to describe quantities for many more years than I have been on this planet. I would not normally agree with such a change, but in this instance I do. And as noted, you don't HAVE to use over, and I will continue to change it in any copy I edit, because more than is the better choice.