Noblet explains AP's new Money & Markets offering

Kevin Noblet, the business editor at the Associated Press, has been part of a team at the wire service examining how it can put together a new page for business sections as a replacement for the stock listings that many papers are cutting. Called Money & Markets, the new AP product is now rolling out into newspapers. Among the first to start using Money & Markets are papers in South Bend, Ind., and Buffalo, N.Y.

Noblet became business editor in 2004 after being deputy business editor since 2000. In a recent interview with Talking Biz News, Noblet, a SABEW board member, explained the new product. What follows is an edited transcript.

1. Can you explain what Money & Markets is?

It’s a new approach to presenting markets and investment information, a combination of analytical reporting, graphics and data with complementary print and online components. The print modules can be used individually or built into a standard page, or pages, which will be a daily destination for investment-minded readers. They’re complemented by online features that allow users to go deeper. These will help newspapers capture readership and build traffic on the Web, where they are in competition with Yahoo, Google et al. While traditional market agate is focused entirely on what happened yesterday (or last week for the weekend wraps), Money & Markets has key elements that are forward-looking and can be more useful and relevant for investors.

2. When did the AP start thinking about this new product?

We’ve been discussing possible alternatives for more than a year. We moved into high gear in the winter, with lots of research. Early this year we brought in Hal Ritter, a former ME for the Money section of USA Today, as a consultant to help guide the design of the product with input from many members and a large team of AP staff.

3. What were some of the factors in pushing for a new way to provide market information?

AP has been the principle supplier of data for markets tables in U.S. newspapers large and small, so we’re sensitive to the big cuts newspapers have been making in those pages. We saw a real danger that the investment-minded reader would abandon business sections entirely unless an innovative approach was developed, one that encompassed both the changing needs of print, including quality, convenience and a compact format, and the new requirements of online, where people also want depth and interactivity.

4. What options or modules does it provide for business sections?

Ease and flexibility of use are keys to how Money & Markets works. The standardized set of daily modules fall into three categories: 1. explanatory and analytical; 2. local and 3. those that offer a new twist on traditional agate. In the first category are items like the Centerpiece, which examines market news and trends, and Today, which lets readers know what to watch for in the day ahead and why. In the second category are a newspaper’s customized selection of local stocks, industry lists and related information. In the third, we offer compact selections in categories like currencies, commodities and interest rates. It all fits well with their A-to-Z tables, which of course newspapers still can offer to the extent they choose to. The modules can, however, be used in markets pages or elsewhere in the section – including on the business cover or even in other sections. There’s a lot of flexibility.

5. How is that information put together?

A Money & Markets team of two reporters, two graphic artists and an editor create the analytical modules, tapping into the larger AP’s resources for covering investment news, including our growing staff in New York and in bureaus around the country, and the world for that matter. The others are largely automated, like our customized tables data are.

6. What role did the newspapers play in the development?

A key one. We sought, and certainly got, detailed feedback on prototypes from a variety of big and small papers, through both a formal survey process and through informal contacts that are ongoing. Lots of AP staff, including marketing executives, bureau chiefs and technical staff, have been involved in this. Our Markets Information group has had a close relationship with markets editors at literally hundreds of member papers for years, and we’ve tapped into that as well. Even as we moved into production this month, we’ve been seeking and receiving suggestions on modifications and enchancements. That’s not going to stop.

7. How many papers have already signed up?

We started with a small group of beta customers, now numbering five, and there are a couple of dozen more still testing both the print and online services. There are even more in the wings — we’re hearing from more interested newspapers each day.

8. Is there anything similar from your competitors?

Some individual papers have designed pages or parts of pages that have similarities to Money & Markets. But there’s nothing quite like it, and certainly not from any other news agency.

9. Beside newspapers, who might benefit from Money & Markets?

Any news outlet, including broadcasters with a Web presence, would find it useful if they’re trying to build an audience of investors.

10. How has this affecting the staffing levels at the AP?

We’ve added the five Money & Markets positions already mentioned. They’re joining a Business News department that’s been steadily growing for more than two years, since we created AP Financial News, a premium investment-oriented news service. In New York and Washington alone, we’ve added more than 40 business reporter and editor positions, and we have plans to add more yet.