AP’s asap Strives to Shore Up Old Media with Youth Appeal
“asap,” as the initiative is entitled, is a play on the speediness implied in that acronym as well as its similarity to the AP abbreviation, notes the “asap is here” release dated September 19, 2005, which heralded the start of this project.
“It is a pilot project,” said Ted Anthony, the project’s editor. Their goal is to make the “news come alive” for 18 to 34 year olds. Some 215 newspapers across AP’s network are participating to help them cull the best from journalistic expertise that this group may find more useful and even participatory.
This “multimedia premium product,” as AP’s periodic updates package the asap specifics, was set up to feature “original content in news, entertainment, lifestyles, money and gadgets, and sports for online, wireless, print and other” timely topics as they connect to younger readers.
Or as they say in their intro Web text (http://www.ap.org): “asap builds on what makes AP great: the highest standards of journalism, global reach, creativity and staff dedication. Grounded in these values, this new product is provocative, smart, relevant and immediate.”
Being a new project, however, means they are not sure what this journalistic beta experiment will morph into.
Introductory written and photographic pieces included a first-person account of a Marine in Iraq, a reporter’s mountain bike adventure with President Bush and a series of photos “taken along the margin of news events” of the day. Entertainers are also seen as attracting greater commitments from the asap “under-utilized readership” clique.
Future efforts are expected to build on other start-up ideas: Age-directed podcasting, for one, which is already on their portal. Other consumer incentives could include methodologically refined “snap” polling to ask the readers “What Do You Want To Ask America?” and perhaps an exploration of participant-directed reporter assignments.
“We won’t turn over editorial control,” of course, Anthony noted, “but we want to give our readers a chance to tell us what stories they might want covered.”
When asked about the fact that their materials and emphasis seemed to be mostly focused on the older edges of the target demographics, Anthony backed away a bit from their ability to be all things to all people.
He said that their internal focus groups (not released detail) and other assessments indicated that they might have aimed too young with some of their early ideas, so they are now more realistically looking at the 25 to 34 subgroup.
When asked why this is not reflected in their promotional materials, he was somewhat cautious. The AP does “have a responsibility” to live up to journalistic integrity and experience, which may be associated with age. The average age of the asap editorial staff is about 31 (near the top of the target demographics), though Anthony says some of his writers are in their late 20s and have direct experience with representing teenage audiences and interests.
“One of the mistakes the industry has made is assuming that younger readers are only interested in stories by and about young people. A 50-year old reporter we have writes stories about soldiers in Iraq that are of great interest to young readers.”
But as good as this may be as a marketing justification, it doesn’t necessarily sit that well with representatives of the youth media themselves, who pride themselves on directly empowering young writers in voice and deed.
Projects such as Youth Outlook of the Pacific News Service, for example, employ only young writers and do not count on sources from the “old media” like AP.
Kevin Weston (age 37), the Director of Youth Communications for Pacific, was not shy about his concerns with efforts like asap that seek profit without necessarily sitting young writers directly at their world-class communication facilities.
Comparing it to the rise of ethnic-focused publications, Weston says: “Young people can tell if the stories are coming from peers or just being reported by others. This is why newspapers and the old media is way behind the times in capturing unique youth voices and/or youth news.”
The writers and editorial staff of Pacific’s youth media are all in their 20s or younger.
Ethnic media, he then goes on to say, is on the rise because people of color need these voices and talents, and the same can be said about young people, who have already developed a remarkable network of talent that remains mostly ignored by mainstream media business strategists.
When asked about the AP initiative specifically and whether groups like YO! would be more inclined to use AP’s asap focus, Weston said, “No. They have already created the gap which is why we exist in the first place.”
With 15,000 news outlets and a daily reach to over one billion people, it is clear that the AP has much potential to help heal age divides as it goes for its marketing goals. The question is whether asap is enough of a springboard of opportunity. Major industry layoffs by Knight-Ridder may suggest that small-step marketing efforts are not sufficient to dig into the wealth of youth resources to inspire a commitment by their audiences.
Information on the asap initiative is available on the Associated Press’s website, http://ap.org. YO!/Pacific News Services’ youth media staff can be reached at http://youthoutlook.org.
Numerous other organizations dedicated to the creative and empowerment potential of young writers and journalist are identifiable on the Web. A great source for these programs is The Free Child Project (http://www.freechild.org).
