A registration packet and complete program information will go out by regular mail next week. But you should begin making reservations now at the Omni Dallas Hotel to get the TAPME’s outstanding room rate.

Call the Omni at 1-800-THE-OMNI and ask for the Associated Press group rate of $129 single/double. The cut-off date is March 2, 2012.

Program topics include politics, digital innovation …

In a nod to the 2012 election, our convention program will feature a political panel that will look at prospects for Gov. Rick Perry after his unsuccessful presidential run — and we’ll hear from experts about what Perry’s experience might mean for Texas politics moving forward.

We also plan two sessions dealing with the increasingly urgent move toward digital platforms. One will discuss the effort to balance revenue between print and digital products: What’s working, what’s not, and what are some of the best ideas for growing digital revenue? The second will examine the pros and cons of using social media to gather news and to extend your brand.

On Sunday, we plan sessions with Freedom of Information experts and a follow-up on access issues surrounding sports coverage — a subject that’s becoming increasingly complicated.

A reminder about the auction …

Celeste Williams at the Star-Telegram is our auction chair and is looking for your contributions for both the live and silent auction. Popular silent auction items include iconic photos, gift baskets and books about Texas people and places.

Live auction winners include vacation homes or packages, tickets to sporting events and airline tickets. Think creatively about what you or your newspaper might donate and get in touch with Celeste at cxwilliams@star-telegram.com.

Remember, the Buster Haas auction funds scholarships for worthy Texas journalism students

Toot your own horn …

We’re looking for produced videos from three newspapers to highlight during the convention, demonstrating effective community outreach efforts. If your newspaper  engaged during the past year in an especially worthwhile community effort, please share that with your fellow editors in the form of a three-minute video. To submit, contact Barton Cromeens at the Abilene Reporter-News (cromeensB@reporternews.com) or Brian Pearson at the Tyler Morning Telegraph (bpearson@tylerpaper.com). Don’t be modest!

The convention hotel will be the newly opened Omni Dallas Hotel adjacent to the Dallas convention center. The APME has secured a room rate of $129 a night, an exceptional value for a hotel of this quality.

The Saturday night awards dinner and auction will be at the exclusive Fort Worth Club in downtown Fort Worth, across the street from the new offices of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Program topics include politics, digital innovation …

In a nod to the 2012 election, our convention program will feature a political panel that will look at prospects for Gov. Rick Perry after his unsuccessful presidential run — and we’ll hear from experts about what Perry’s experience might mean for Texas politics moving forward.

We also plan two sessions dealing with the increasingly urgent move toward digital platforms. One will discuss the effort to balance revenue between print and digital products: What’s working, what’s not, and what are some of the best ideas for growing digital revenue? The second will examine the pros and cons of using social media to gather news and to extend your brand.

On Sunday, we plan sessions with Freedom of Information experts and a follow-up on access issues surrounding sports coverage — a subject that’s becoming increasingly complicated.

Look for a full program and registration materials in two weeks.

Don’t forget about the auction …

Celeste Williams at the Star-Telegram is our auction chair and is looking for your contributions for both the live and silent auction. Popular silent auction items include iconic photos, gift baskets and books about Texas people and places.

Live auction winners include vacation homes or packages, tickets to sporting events and airline tickets. Think creatively about what you or your newspaper might donate and get in touch with Celeste at cxwilliams@star-telegram.com.

Remember, the Buster Haas auction funds scholarships for worthy Texas journalism students

A word about our sponsors …

The Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News are the legacy sponsors for the 2012 convention. But two Texas universities — Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Texas Christian University in Fort Worth — will co-sponsor convention transportation between the two cities and will be featured at different times in the convention program.

Those Charles E. Green awards are:

• Star Reporter of the Year
• Star Photojournalist of the Year
• Star Designer of the Year
• Star Investigative Report of the Year
• Star Breaking News Report of the Year
• Star Online Report of the Year

Also, don’t forget to send in your best entries for the Newspaper of the Year Award.

The deadline for entries will be midnight, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012 for electronic entries and 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2011 for mailed Newspaper of the Year entries. The contest period covers work done from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2011, with exceptions as noted in the rules.

A complete copy of the rules is now available for download, as well as classifications by newspaperIf you have questions about the rules, contact this year’s contest coordinators:

• Shane Fitzgerald, Editor, Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 820 N. Lower Broadway, Corpus Christi, TX 78401, fitzgeralds@caller.com, 361-886-3688
• Yvonne Mintz, Managing Editor, The Facts, 720 S. Main, Clute, TX 77531; yvonne.mintz@thefacts.com or 979-237-0144.
• Kelly Brown, Editor, Bryan-College Station Eagle, 1729 Briarcrest Drive, Bryan, TX 77802; kelly.brown@theeagle.com or 979-731-4656.

ALL checks should be made payable to Texas APME, envelope addressed to Chief of Bureau, The Associated Press, 4851 LBJ Freeway, Suite 300, Dallas, TX 75244.

The winners will be announced at the 2012 convention planned for March 30-April 1 in Dallas/Fort Worth. See you there!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE 2012 CONTEST RULES AND NEWSPAPER CLASSIFICATIONS

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR ENTRIES NOW

Save the dates now for the 2012 Texas APME convention in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Convention dates will be March 30-April 1, with venues across the DFW metroplex.

The convention hotel will be the soon-to-open Omni Dallas Hotel adjacent to the Dallas convention center. The APME has secured a room rate of $129 a night, an exceptional value for a hotel of this quality.

The Saturday night awards dinner and auction will be at the exclusive Fort Worth Club in downtown Fort Worth, across the street from the new offices of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News are the legacy sponsors for the 2012 convention. But two Texas universities — Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Texas Christian University in Fort Worth — will cosponsor convention transportation between the two cities and will be featured at different times in the convention program.

As of now, sessions are planned on access to electronic records, political coverage, social media and the creep of marketing into the newsroom. We’ll also announce winners in the Texas APME competition. Please build attendance into your budgets now.

September Photo of the Month

Jay Janner of the Austin American-Statesman is winner of the September Photo of the Month contest among Texas newspapers for this image of a burning house during a central Texas wildfire.

AP, members collaborate on package of stories addressing record drought

Coverage of the devastating Texas drought has been a regular part of the AP report throughout 2011, with writers Ramit Plushnick-Masti, Betsey Blaney and Angela Brown taking lead roles in reporting this ongoing story.

In late September, The Dallas Morning News and the Odessa American also contributed stories to a package by Plushnick-Masti on the state’s failure to allocate the money needed to prepare for the state’s future water needs.

Plushnick-Masti’s story recounted how a $53 billion blueprint to ensure water for Texans even in times of drought has to date received just $1.4 billion in funding, with numerous missed deadlines.

The Morning News’ Randy Loftis contributed a story that recounted the tug-of-war between Texas and Oklahoma over Texas’ attempts to bring water from southeastern Oklahoma to North Texas.

Odessa’s David Johnson added a story about the Colorado River Municipal Water District’s rush to complete a pipeline project before the spring of 2013. That’s when surface water could disappear in parts of West Texas without adequate rainfall.

Introducing AP NewsPlan: a quicker way to communicate with members

AP NewsPlan is a new, interactive website designed to enhance the communication flow between our newsroom and yours.  Editors from the AP newsroom in New York will post real-time updates on the day’s most important stories to the site and will showcase relevant text, photo, video and interactive content for top stories and enterprise around the globe.

The topics for posts will include updates on major changes to stories, insight on how the AP report is coming together, and when a story will be expected to move. Questions, comments and engagement with member editors are encouraged.

A beta version of APNewsPlan has been running with a group of members representing a wide variety of circulation sizes and geography.

AP NewsPlan is designed to augment but not replace the News Digest that has been a mainstay of AP and member newsrooms for many years  Contact Dale Leach or Barry Bedlan for more information.

Headliners Foundation launches new website to promote Texas journalism

The Headliners Foundation of Texas has launched a new website, featuring examples of excellence in journalism from across the state.

The Headliners’ Bergan Casey says the purpose of the site is twofold: to allow journalists and industry leaders a forum to promote outstanding work and to provide a platform for journalists to share information.

The site includes interviews with award-winning journalists, including SteveMcGonigle of The Dallas Morning News, whose coverage of Gov. Rick Perry’s real estate transactions earned the Morning News the award for Star Investigative Report of the Year in the Texas APME-Headliners competition.

The site also offers blogs about the state of journalism in Texas, successes and failures, and trends and tips.

You can visit the site at www.headlinersfoundation.org.

Last year, the AP introduced a new policy for the crediting of member newspapers in our reporting, including member attribution in stories picked up from a single newspaper — no matter how small the story.

Starting next week, that practice moves one step further. In addition to offering a link to the contributing member’s home page at the end of a text story in the “Information From” tag, we will also provide a direct link to the actual story from which the pick-up originated in the text of the AP version.

This new policy applies when the entirety of the story is derived from a single member’s contribution. These stories move most often on state wires but occasionally are transmitted on national or global wires.

AP managing editor Mike Oreskes points out that nothing about this change alters our existing policy on attributing to other organizations information that we haven’t independently reported. Nor does it change our policy to give credit to members that broke a story first, even when we match it or advance it through our own reporting.

For members with pay walls, the link will generally direct a reader to a page in- forming them the story they seek is behind a pay wall and explaining how they can purchase access to that content.

Providing direct links to member stories has been under consideration by the AP and its members for some time, but technical issues prevented its implementation. Those technical matters have now been overcome.

June Photo of the Month

Deborah Cannon of the Austin American-Statesman is winner of the June Photo of the Month contest among Texas newspapers for this image that visually demonstrates the fatigue among lawmakers in the waning days of the Legislature’s special session.

Plushnick-Masti visits Cotulla to tell the story of a new oil boomtown

Houston’s Ramit Plushnick-Masti traveled to Cotulla in June to tell the story of its transformation from a South Texas backwater to the hub of a major oil boom.

For generations, Cotulla has been a town where even the paved roads had the aura of the dusty, saloon-lined paths from old Western movies. Cowboys, ranchers and shop owners tied their livelihood to the hunting season. Young people left to escape double-digit unemployment and poverty rates.

Now, Plushnick-Masti writes, the challenge is all the people pouring in.

Cotulla, about 90 miles south of San Antonio, and nearby towns are rushing to house hundreds of workers and approve plans for apartment complexes and industri- al parks to keep up with the development of the Eagle Ford shale formation, one of the most plentiful new oil fields in the country.

After years of preliminary work, the project is fully under way and sales tax revenues have soared.

AP expands Hometown Leads to include college football, NFL coverage

Hometown Leads, which offered a more local approach to the AP’s coverage of Major League Baseball, has been expanded to include major college football and the NFL.

On college games, Hometown Leads will move on Top 25 teams and those from the six major BCS conferences, including the Big 12. All NFL games will carry the Hometown Leads.

As in baseball, these leads will be filed in addition to the regular optional top that focuses on the winning team. They will move after the breaking and optional leads have appeared on the wire.

The new Hometown Leads will also pick up into the material in the breaking lead; stories will be approximately 12-15 inches in length. The football leads will carry a featurized top.

National APME Conference to recognize innovation

Denver plays host to this year’s national APME conference, Sept. 14- 16.

An action-packed program provides the support, training and ideas news- room leaders need. The conference will be held at the new Embassy Suites Denver-Downtown Convention Center,

Visit www.apme.com to learn more and to register.

The story certainly sounded compelling: Authorities in Liberty County were investigating a tip that multiple bodies had been buried at a rural Texas farmhouse.

It was enough to send some news organizations over the edge — several of them reporting as fact the discovery of 20 to 30 bodies.
Trouble was, it turned out not to be true.

Yes, there was a tip to law enforcement officials that multiple bodies — up to 30 in a Reuters report — would be found at the house. The caller, who claimed to be a psychic, knew details about the inside of the house that made her seem credible. Traces of blood and a foul smell coming from inside were enough to trigger a search warrant.

But there were no bodies. Just some rotting meat in a broken freezer and a few embarrassed reporters.

Members relying on the AP’s coverage had no reason to worry. While the AP advised members that it was aware of the reports and had sent reporters and a photographer to the scene, we also made clear the source of the reports was unknown. The AP never reported that any bodies had been found.

The Houston Chronicle was just as cautious.

George Haj, senior editor for news at the Chronicle, said the Chronicle was immediately skeptical of the initial television report about the discovery of bodies.

“We pushed hard to answer a couple of questions – what exactly did police know vs. what they were told by a source/tipster, and where did the original tip come from,” Haj wrote.

The Chronicle was first to reach the owner of the house, a long-haul trucker who explained the blood and insisted he’d not been involved in any killings.

May Photo of the Month

Joe Gamma of the Amarillo Globe-News is winner of the May Texas Photo of the Month contest for this image from a Randall County wildfire. The Globe-News also won the state Photo of the Month contest in April.

2011 Stylebooks available with discount for members

The 2011 Associated Press Stylebook launched in May with about 500 new and updated listings since the 2010 edition. We update our spiral-bound Stylebook every year, adding new listings and updating existing ones. Of special interest this year is the addition of a food chapter, as well as an expanded social media section. Other style updates include email, cellphone, smartphone, earthquakes, CPR and bedbug.

AP members receive a discount on the Stylebook, paying $12.75 per book instead of our regular price of $19.95. We also offer a member discount on the Web-based Stylebook Online, which is updated throughout the year and which offers the ability to add your own entries and add notes to AP’s listings. Online-only features include an Ask the Editor function with archives of past answers, a pronunciation guide with phonetic spellings and audio pronouncer files and Capital IQ profiles of publicly traded companies.

Rates are based on the number of users, with pricing available either for individual named users or for concurrent users. Contact Dale Leach or Barry Bedlan for information on pricing or place your order at apstylebook.com.

Relief fund established for Joplin Globe staff members affected by tornado

The Missouri Press Association has established a disaster fund within the Missouri Press Foundation to assist Joplin Globe employees affected by last month’s tornado. All of the proceeds will go directly to affected employees.

The homes of at least 26 employees of The Globe were heavily damaged or destroyed by the tornado. A page designer at the newspaper, Bruce Baillie, 57, was killed.

Tax deductible donations to the relief fund may be made online at tinyurl.com/44szw5r. Checks can be sent to the Missouri Press Foundation, 802 Locust Street, Columbia, MO 65201.

AP Exchange/Summer School: Training focuses on business

Mark your calendar for Wednesday, June 15, from 4:30-5:30 p.m., when The Associated Press will offer specialized training on business content through “AP Exchange: Summer School.”

AP’s global business report is available to Member Choice Complete subscribers. This training class will demonstrate how to create a custom feed of content for your newspaper. We’ll also show you how to take advantage of premium financial content available to you only through AP Exchange.

Please join us for the 60-minute WebEx training session by using the call-in and Web information provided here. Join us for as much time as your schedule allows.

• Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2011
• Time: 3:30 pm, CDT
• Meeting Number: 767 828 471
• Meeting Password: biz
• To join the online meeting: click here
• Call-in number: 1-866-699-3239
• Access code:767 828 471

Texas AP members lead the country in contributions over the past 12 months, with more than 3,000 contributions to the AP report during that time.

The number of contributions also represents a year-over-year increase in member photos of 10 percent.

If you have a dramatic image or coverage from a spot news event in your area, please do your part to ensure that other Texas newspapers get to see it. Do your part to keep Texas ahead of the pack!

April Photo of the Month

Roberto Rodriguez of the Amarillo Globe-News is winner of the April Texas Photo of the Month contest for this image from the funeral of a firefighter killed while battling a wildfire.

Don’t be left out of Member Marketplace

Is your newspaper part of the Member Marketplace in Texas?

Marketplace is the link in AP Exchange that opens up a treasure trove of regional content for your newspaper — both text and photos. And being a part of it costs you nothing.

Member Marketplace in Texas is now more than three dozen newspapers strong. Those newspapers share dozens of stories daily as part of their Marketplace participation. It’s a great way to share content on high school sports and re- gional issues that may not rise to statewide significance.

At last count, there were nearly 12,000 text items and more than 220 photos in the Texas Marketplace database . But you get to see them only if you’re a Marketplace participant.

Joining the Marketplace is easy. You sign a simple agreement in which you commit to quickly correct any content errors and to credit fellow AP members when you use their Marketplace material. Then, like the other Marketplace participants in the state, you simply authorize your content to move into Marketplace automatically; no one has to remember to “send” stories on a regular basis.

Marketplace material is searchable in the same way AP content is in AP Exchange. Contact Dale Leach or Barry Bedlan in the Dallas bureau to learn more.

Lifestyles May coverage: Outdoor/Summer

AP Lifestyles coverage this month focuses on out- door recreation and sum- mertime activities. Here’s a sampling:

• Recreation: An early exclusive on Dr. Beach’s Top 10 US beaches; how to throw a great summer dinner party; firepits.
• Food: Summer salads; the popularity of popup restaurants; the state of the magazine food world; a package dedicated to ice cream.
• Parenting: How to get along with a college kid home for the summer; what not to say to a new college grad (such as, “What do you mean you don’t have a job?)
• Travel: What’s new in theme parks, including a story about a unique theme park in Texas designed for guests with disabilities; and a look at lightweight camping.

AP Money & Markets expands online offerings

AP’s Money & Markets online service has en- hanced its market index graph that charts each market index. The chart can be dynamically changed to display variable time frames or to compare indexes.

The enhanced charting functionality provides users with a better tool to review and analyze mar- ket data. To activate the charting capabilities, the user clicks on any one of the indexes in the market index module.

This enhanced module is available to all Money & Markets members. The enhanced index graphic is just one of many new Money & Markets modules. To see all of the available modules, visit markets.ap.org.

Mark your calendars for the 2011 Texas APME convention and awards presentations March 25-27 at the new Courtyard Marriott in Tyler.

Your APME board has put together another outstanding program aimed at working editors and their staffs. And bring someone along. Besides an informal barbeque Friday night and the Buster Haas scholarship auction Saturday night, non-industry people will enjoy all that Tyler has to offer — including the glorious opening weekend of the Azalea Festival.

Watch soon for your registration packets and plan to be there.

Push under way for more member photos

The Texas photo report grew by 34 percent in 2010, to 12,288 images (compared with 9,166 in 2009). But we need your images to bring more geographic diversity to the AP photo report.

Kim Johnson, Dallas news editor for photos, has made increased member contributions a goal for 2011. So please think of fellow AP members when you have a compelling image. And please be receptive to Kim when she calls with photo requests.

We’re off to a great start in January, with contributions up 30 percent from last year. Let’s keep up the momentum through the year.

Civil War Anniversary

The 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War occurs in April, and the AP is working on a coverage plan that will include text, video packages and an interactive.

Please feel free to offer your thoughts and suggestions on this package to news editor James Beltran (jbeltran@ap.org) or South regional editor Lisa Payne (lpayne@ap.org).

New faces join AP Texas staff in Dallas, El Paso, Austin

The year is still young, but the AP Texas staff has already welcomed a few additions.

In Dallas, James Beltran joins the staff as Texas news editor. Beltran previously worked as a supervisor in the AP’s Los Angeles bureau. Beltran is a Texan and a graduate of the University of Houston. He is a former city editor for The Brownsville Herald.

In Austin, Chris Tomlinson is the new correspondent and oversees the AP’s four-person staff in the capital. Tomlinson is a graduate of the University of Texas and previously served as the AP’s correspondent in Nairobi, Kenya.

In El Paso, Juan Carlos Llorca has been named correspondent and is expected to arrive in Texas this month. Llorca most recently was the AP’s correspondent in Guatemala City. Before joining the AP, he was a political writer for El Periodico in Guatemala City .

Also in Austin, we welcome Sommer Ingram to the coverage team for the 2011 legislative session. Ingram is a December 2010 graduate of Baylor University.

AP Live offers coverage of entertainment’s busy awards season

AP Live is your single source for the best in Golden Globes, Grammys and Oscars coverage with news, photos and live red carpet video.

Deliver the excitement of entertainment’s awards season to your website with an easy-to-use packaged player that wraps stories, photos, videos and interactive into one dynamic, engaging presentation.

Coverage kicked off with the Golden Globes nominations and runs through March with the Oscars wrap-ups.

Comprehensive coverage includes nominations, live red carpet interviews and the after parties at the Golden Globes, the Grammys and the Academy Awards.

The AP Live Player includes on-demand video clips and real-time social media connectivity through Facebook and Twitter. It is offered in several configurations.

AP online video service moving in March to NDN platform

AP is moving its Online Video Network to the News Distribution Network.

OVN members were notified in December of plans to end the OVN service on March 31. At that time, OVN players and tools on your site will no longer be functional.

However, the NDN solution will continue to offer you the breaking news video you have expected from the AP’s OVN service. In addition, NDN offers video from other news sources.

You can find more about the transition of OVN to the NDN at http://newsinc.com/ndntransition/. AP and NDN are offering weekly WebEx sessions to help our OVN members see the NDN service and ask questions directly of NDN.

Meetings are offered every Thursday, from Jan. 6 to April 7, at 2 p.m. Eastern.

Contact Dale Leach or Barry Bedlan for instructions on joining a meeting.

DOWNLOAD: Click here to download a PDF copy of this issue.

To view a current list of the items that will be up for bid, click here. Be sure to check back often, as we’ll be adding more items in the weeks leading up to the auction.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE CONVENTION NOW!

Hotel Reservation Information