Thanks again, AP

AP posts story about the State Department allowing you to renew your passport online. But nowhere in the story is the link to where you can renew your passport online. I had to Google search "State Department passport online" to find the link.

 

One last bit about Trump’s visit to McDonald’s: the AP cutline.

“Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, left, hands off an order of fries alongside an employee …”

I always enjoy when AP feels obligated to say who Trump is (or the other day, King Charles III, riding next to Camilla).

 

Today's transactions list says Carolina called QB Jake Plummer up from the practice squad. What? Turns out his name is Jack Plummer.

 

From the digest: The New York sports desk can be reached at 800-845-8450, ext. 1630. Sports photos, ext. 1918; graphics, ext. 7636; agate, ext. 1635.

 

The AP's nightly game coverage in the NBA and NHL is getting more and more worthless!

 

What prompted you to write that?

 

AP has switched from regular game stories with a writethru including quotes to a 300-word summary (a 100-word lede and some breakouts) without a writethru except for extraordinary circumstances. Clients were surveyed and said this is what they wanted.

 

At my college paper we ran a photo of our football coach in a publicity shot with Ronald McDonald promoting a donation to Ronald McDonald House.

The cutline began, "Bill Curry (left)..."

 

Basically this.

 

The Bill Curry cut lines reminds me of one of my favorite. Ron Hill Jr (right) and his horse, Sunshine, …

 

It's as if THE Associated Press' product is devolving to what a crappy, lazy, slacker, "I get paid to watch the game" stringer would file.

 

It's brutal.

I work a design desk for multiple regional papers. We have the earliest print deadline at the biggest paper, but usually also have the most sports pages to fill. So over the years I have depended on these longer gamers, especially down the road in the summer when baseball is basically the only thing going on both locally and nationally. So I'm at a position where I'm having to really dig deep to find AP content that really has minimal local relevance.

The smaller-college game briefs have almost gotten unusable, as well, with the footnote: The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

Gee thanks!