A note about ASAP

While at the Sacramento AAJA's careeer workshop last Saturday, I asked Tom Verdin if he knew why ASAP folded. He told me that the site didn't make enough money. I mentioned advertising and he corrected me--AP does not sell ads. It is a wire service. Not enough newspapers chose to subscribe to the content ASAP delivered.

Though it failed in a financial sense, he compared it to a laboratory because it allowed AP writers to experiment with telling a story using multimedia. It gave them experience that they can now pass on to other writers, and carry with them in the future.

During the panelist discussion, he stressed that AP reporters are not technology experts. They are expected to be comfortable with taking video and audio and other things, but "we don't get paid extra for it," he said.