News Selection Patterns from a State TTS-Wire

fl WIRE-SERVICE PERSONNEL AND BUreau chiefs typically get rather unsystematic “feed-back’’ about the use made of their product except on the more spectacular news events they cover. Major press associations do provide newsletter-type logs, but these focus on keenly competitive stories and pictures. State and regional wire service bureaus informally spot-check the pages of member or client papers to get impressions of the relative use made of stories, but this effort falls short of systematic study. Some state or regional managing editor groups, to be sure, meet with bureau chiefs periodically to discuss wire content and its use, but again, many of these discussions are highly qualitative. In general, the fate of large numbers of smaller stories transmitted daily by press associations seldom is known through systematic checks of their use and acceptance by wire editors.