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AP to offer alternative leads for some stories
3/16/2005 12:05:55 PM

[AP managing editor Mike Silverman's letter to clients]

Dear Managing Editor:

I'd like to call your attention to this advisory, which is moving on the
AP national wire this week. It describes a commitment on our part to regularly provide optional or alternative leads on major spot news stories, with the goal of helping give newspapers something fresh for readers who already have read the facts on the Web.

We welcome your feedback.

Sincerely,

Mike

EDITORS:

We are pleased to announce an initiative designed to enhance the value of the AP news report to your newspaper.

Its called the Optional Lead.

Many of you will already be familiar with it from the sports wire and may have noticed it appearing on national news wires occasionally during the past two months.

The concept is simple: On major spot stories _ especially when events
happen early in the day _ we will provide you with two versions to
choose between. One will be the traditional "straight lead" that leads with the main facts of what took place. The other will be the optional, an alternative approach that attempts to draw in the reader through
imagery, narrative devices, perspective or other creative means.

This initiative comes in response to what we've been hearing from many
editors _ that you need to be able to offer your readers something fresh
so they will want to pick up the newspaper and read a story, even though the facts have been splashed all over the Web and widely broadcast.

To further this goal, AP will NOT be moving these optional leads to our
Internet services. They are designed strictly for print.

Note that this is not an attempt to turn a hard news story into a feature. We will still present the main facts of what happened in the top few grafs of the optional. Following the alternative lead, the story will typically pick up into the body of the traditional lead. Here are a couple of recent examples from the wire:

Traditional:

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Senate marched Wednesday toward passage of landmark legislation that would make it harder to erase medical bills,
credit card charges and other debts by declaring bankruptcy.

Democratic opponents made last-ditch attempts to soften the bill's
impact and restrict practices of the credit industry that they said were
especially hurting the poor.

Optional:

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Thousands of Americans could soon find it impossible to walk into bankruptcy courts and out of their debts.

Sometime this fall, that clean slate probably won't be available to them because of legislation long sought by credit card companies and banks, now headed for passage in the Senate.

Traditional:

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) _ A suicide attacker set off a bomb that tore through a funeral tent jammed with Shiite mourners Thursday, splattering blood and body parts over rows of overturned white plastic chairs. The attack, which killed 47 and wounded more than 100, came as Shiite and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad said they overcame a major stumbling block to forming a new coalition government.

Optional:

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) _ Yet again, almost as if scripted, a day of hope for a new, democratic Iraq turned into a day of tears as a bloody insurgent attack undercut a political step forward.

On Thursday, just as Shiite and Kurdish politicians in Baghdad were
telling reporters that they overcame a major stumbling block to forming
a new coalition government, a suicide attacker set off a bomb that tore
through a funeral tent jammed with Shiite mourners in the northern city
of Mosul.

We'll let you know through digests and "Eds:" notes on stories each day
which stories we plan to offer in two versions. And we'll always update
both versions of a story anytime there are significant developments
during the cycle.

We're eager to get feedback from you on this initiative. I look forward
to hearing from you with comments and suggestions.

Mike Silverman
AP Managing Editor