For the last 9 months the Associated Press has been working on a new planning tool for TV and digital newsrooms. The AP Playbook, as its called, is compatible with AP’s ENPS but also works with other newsroom management systems.
“We feel like there’s a real need in the newsrooms that we have visited to bring the various sets of folks from all around those newsroom into one common place for planning,” said Brian Hopman, VP and GM of ENPS.
The AP promises the browser-based platform will require minimal training. We got a test drive today at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.
Assignment editors and reporters will get the most use out of AP Playbook. First users create a story assignment and give it a title. Then, the type of story (breaking news, feature), add tags, images, video, social media. And once it’s assigned, the reporter gets a smartphone notification with supporting detail. It is also designed to work with other software-as-a-service applications and can track expenses related to covering a story.
The team designed AP Playbook specifically to fit the needs of newsrooms. “We see usage run the gamut between Google Docs, Trello, Slack, and any number of other things out there that weren’t built for that purpose,” he said.
The service will be an add on to current news management systems, with pricing remaining under wraps for now, though Hopman added, “I think we’re going to be really competitive with some of the things we’ve seen out there.”
“We really do feel there’s an opportunity to take what we know from news, what we know from building things for news people, and offer something that’s a good fit,” he said.