With pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training this month, it's a good time to take a look at AP Page-Ready Baseball, which offers box scores and linescores as completely formatted and ready-to-use displays. This service spares your sports desk the time-consuming task of assembling baseball agate on deadline. You simply drag and drop the presentation onto your page and it's ready to go. The presentations offer a winning look that readers and advertisers value. AP Page-Ready Baseball offers modules in Quark and InDesign formats. Starting this year, it offers modules in six-column format in addition to seven-column format. Please contact Bill or Ric for more information or to sign up for a free test during Spring Training.
STATS PASS
AP is offering STATS PASS, the ultimate online information tool for sports research. It draws upon the massive STATS proprietary database and taps an almost limitless supply of statistical leaders and trailers, splits, situation breakdowns, player and team game logs and historical data. STATS PASS draws on data from STATS LLC, a leader in sports statistics for more than two decades. STATS PASS offers complete current and historic data on NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NCAA football and men's Division I NCAA basketball. With STATS PASS your reporters have a rich, easily accessible source of data to add depth to a feature story or when filing on deadline from the press box. Please contact Bill or Ric to arrange a free trial.
ONLINE VIDEO NETWORK
AP is launching the Online Video Network to provide members an easy way to add high-quality video to your online news sites and to profit from the growing reader and advertiser interest in video online.We provide you with a turn-key service that keeps your Web site's branding. The ad-supported network means members get AP's award-winning coverage at no out-of-pocket cost, in exchange for promoting it. Please contact us with questions or to join the video network.
ELECTIONS
The election season is heating up in Illinois. We're starting to take orders for the 2006 special election wire.
This won't just be any mid-term election. With growing opposition to the war in Iraq, political scandal and key Senate, House and gubernatorial races in play, this election could change the balance of power in Congress.
The Associated Press is the nation's vote counter. No other organization covers state and national elections as thoroughly and accurately. On election nights, an AP quality-control team will examine all incoming returns to make sure they are accurate and complete. No one else in the media or outside can offer that assurance.
The 2006 gubernatorial race in Illinois will be one of the most closely watched in the country, with Republicans hoping to reclaim an office they held for a quarter-century. The state also has two high-profile House races involving an Iraq war veteran who lost both legs in a helicopter attack and a suburban Democratic freshman who is a top target of Republicans.
In addition, Illinois has all of its statewide offices (lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and comptroller), 19 congressional seats and 157 state legislative seats in play.
For your planning purposes, here are your rates for some of our 2006 special election wire packages.The specific rate may vary, depending on how you choose to receive the material, and whether you want primary and general election, or only one of them.
Special election combination package: Discounted package includes coverage of the state primary and general elections for print and online, top-of-ticket national trends, year-round online pre-election content and access to the AP Politics database.
Print election package: Coverage of the state primary and general elections for print use only and access to the AP Politics database.
Online election package: Coverage of the state primary and general elections for online use only. Includes top-of-the-ticket national trends, special online pre-election content and access to the AP Politics database.
Here are some of the key strengths of our election reporting service:
* The AP has special election reporters in each of the 102 counties in Illinois. Those reporters call in fresh returns on primary and general election nights to a staff of specialists who feed the results into a database.
* The election wire is a dedicated circuit that allows us to move returns much more frequently than you receive on your standard DataStream service.
* The election wire is extremely valuable for members with online services. The increased frequency of results on the election wire makes it that much more relevant for online use. Our online package also includes lots of the interactive elements that were so popular in 2004, including flash graphics and dynamic maps that show state-by-state results, trends on congressional and gubernatorial races and major state ballot issues. Our online package also includes valuable pre-election content.
*As a special enhancement in 2006, we'll be offering election wire subscribers free access to the valuable AP Politics site. AP Politics is an online reference tool for internal use only that offers comprehensive, real-time political news coverage and research resources for the 2006 elections. AP Politics includes pre-election content throughout the year.
*The election wire offers a greater variety and number of valuable county and regional tables on statewide races -- valuable analytical data for political writers.
* We also offer preferential rates for members who add a second state primary and/or general election.
If you have any questions about our special election wire or would like me to send you an agreement for the service, please call Bill or Ric or send me an e-mail.
