The Associated Press will offer shorter and speedier coverage of baseball games, with 300-word stories and bulleted points, the AP’s Paul Colford wrote Monday in a press release.
Starting July 28, we’ll launch a new format that presents the game story in a faster, more accessible and more customizable package. Instead of a traditional 600-word game story, our coverage will feature 300 words about the game and then up to five bullet points that highlight mini storylines, injuries, key plays and what’s coming next for a team.
The change will make stories faster to read, faster to publish and more customizable for newsrooms. Unique content will be more easily highlighted and communicated. Editors can choose to use the 300-word story, or break off the bullet points for websites.
That new format was tested out during spring training, Colford wrote, and came from customer feedback.
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In May, Poynter’s Andrew Beaujon wrote about an AP memo encouraging alternative story forms.
(Brian) Carovillano, (AP’s managing editor for U.S. news,) suggests ways to hit those targets. No. 1: Stick to the word count you were assigned. No. 2: “Consider using alternative story forms either to break out details from longer stories, or in lieu of a traditional text story.”
Clarification: The original headline of this story has been changed to more accurately reflect the changes the AP is planning for baseball coverage. While the game story length will be cut in half, AP is also adding bullet points with additional content.
