This is publicicly available on the S.F. Gate web-site... so... read it for what its worth.

;-D or *Sigh?*

Diane

MANAGING EDITORS:

Friday, December 10, 1999

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/1999/12/10/state1500EST0036.DTL

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

(12-10) 12:00 PST This is to advise you of plans for advance and spot coverage of millenium activities and Y2K concerns by Associated Press bureaus in California and Nevada.

STATE OVERVIEW:

1) The California millenium package -- a collection of stories looking back over the last 100 years and ahead to the next century -- moved first in June, and will be repeated Dec. 9 and Monday, Dec. 13 in response to member requests. The photos that go with the package will be retransmitted Monday, Dec. 13. If you have questions, please call Anthony Shadid in Los Angeles 213-626-1200) or Noel Wilson in San Francisco (415-621-7432), or ask for the desk supervisor in either bureau.

2) We will continue to move spot and advance stories through December as developments warrant. Those stories all will carry MIL- or Y2K- slugs.

3) We plan daily spot stories throughought the final week of 1999. A detailed lineup is at the end of this advisory.

NATIONAL COVERAGE & A WEBSITE:

For national coverage, check out the AP's special millennium-Y2K Web site set up for member use. The site, www.ap.org/pages/y2k/coverage, contains tips for covering yearend events, useful U.S. and international Web links and copies of AP coverage advisories and the millennium calendar. It also includes a place to contact AP editors handling end-of-year coverage, and to contribute items to the calendar.

The username is [snip -- read the article if you really want to know] and the password is [snip].

NEW YEAR'S WEEKEND STAFFING:

California bureaus in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco will be staffed around the clock through New Year's weekend, and Nevada bureaus will be staffed extensively. We will aggressively track potential problems with police, fire and other public safety agencies, utilities, computer experts, party sites and elsewhere.

Among the sites we will send reporters and photographers:

-- State and local emergency operations centers in Sacramento, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

-- Los Angeles International airport.

-- The Mexican border at San Ysidro.

-- Celebrations and parties in Los Angeles (Pasadena, Hermosa Beach and West Hollywood), San Diego, San Rafael, Berkeley and San Francisco (Union Square, the waterfront, the Mission and North Beach), the Las Vegas Strip, Reno and Stateline.

-- Yosemite National Park, where campers will ring in the Year 2000 beneath Half Dome, not far from the swank Ahwahnee Hotel.

-- Lake Tahoe, where some will mark the New Year skiing or gambling while others hunker down in their cabins, safe from Y2K fears.

We will staff other sites as warranted, and closely monitor local and regional agencies.

PHOTOS:

The AP will provide extensive photo coverage. The Los Angeles and San Francisco photo desks will be staffed throughout the New Year's weekend, including overnight on New Year's Eve.

In Los Angeles, we will photo staff the Emergency Operations Center through the night and covering other areas of interest including Los Angeles International Airport, parties including an event at the Hollywood sign, and religious observances. We will staff breaking news and cover events in tandem with print coverage.

In San Francisco, we will celebrations, parties and religious observances in addition to any breaking news.

In Sacramento, we will photo staff the office of Emergency Services/Department of Information Technology headquarters through New Year's Eve and into New Year's Day.

In Nevada, we will staff New Year's Eve celebrations in Las Vegas and any other spot news. One photographer will be specifically assigned to cover the festivities at street level, through New Year's Eve and into New Year's Day, filing a running package of photos throughout the night. He will look for the unusual and bizarre, including busy wedding chapels, over-the-top revelers on the Strip, and more.

(Y2K) SPOT COVERAGE:

We plan a main story, with a glance, sidebars and extensive photo coverage, for each cycle beginning Tuesday, Dec. 28, through the New Year weekend and into the following week. Though the focus may change depending on events, here is a tentative day-by-day plan:

-- Tuesday, PREPARATIONS: a Sacramento-dated story on what steps the state, cities, counties plus agencies and businesses are taking to prepare for millennium celebrations and potential Y2K problems. Instituions and services we will cover include hospitals, utilities, water services, banks, transportation, aviation, shipping and media.

We will start BC-CA--California Counts Down-Glance, a running glance summarizing the day's highlights and looking ahead to the big weekend. This glance will be updated daily.

-- Wednesday, NO PARTY: a Los Angeles-dated story on people who have to work New Year's Eve, what their bosses are doing to motivate them and what they think about missing out on the century's biggest party. With a highlights glance. Plus BC-CA--California Counts Down-Glance.

-- Thursday, DIGGING IN: a Los Angeles-dated story on what California residents are doing to prepare for worst-case scenarios on New Year's Eve, including runs on stores, hoarding and attempts to ride out the weekend indoors. Plus the running glance. Plus BC-CA--California Counts Down-Glance.

-- Friday AMs coverage will include two main stories tracking the celebration and the Y2K threat, plus a lighter sidebar BC-CA--California Counts Down-Glance.

THE PARTY: an undated story on the night's celebrations, along with a glance of party highlights. We will provide material from Los Angeles, San Francisco's Union Square, the Las Vegas Strip, San Diego's Balboa Park and Yosemite National Park.

THE PREPARATIONS: a Sacramento-dated roundup on preparations around the state for potential Y2K problems, along with a glance on safety tips.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?: a Los Angeles-dated story asks Californians what they would do for their last 12 hours if a favorite Hollywood plot came true and the world actually ended with the 1990s.

-- Friday PMs, COUNTDOWN: In addition to updated stories on celebrations and preparations, we will move a Tijuana-dated story on the scene at the U.S.-Mexico border, the world's busiest, with a look at Y2K problems that could spill into the United States. We will also look at Americans who chose to celebrate the millennium across the border. Plus BC-CA--California Counts Down-Glance.

-- Saturday AMs, MILLENNIUM: We plan separate roundups on the two main themes of the day, the celebration and the Y2K threat. Both will be updated through the cycle into the Year 2000.

For papers with early deadlines, we also will move an early AMs story, written to stand, on Californians watching the rest of the world mark the onset of the new millennium, as midnight proceeds around the globe. We will pay particular attention to groups in the state with relatives abroad, from soldiers to immigrants.

By afternoon, we will move separate roundups on millennium celebrations and Y2K concerns. We plan separate sidebars from San Francisco, the U.S.-Mexico border, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and other locales, as warranted. In addition, we will move a separate on the countdown to 2000 at a high-tech company in Silicon Valley.

We plan a glance with highlights of millennium celebrations and a package of vignettes from around the state on how residents celebrated the biggest New Year's Eve in memory.

Plus BC-CA--California Counts Down-Glance.

-- Saturday PMs, THE NEXT DAY: spot developments from across the state, particularly focusing on any signs the Y2K computer bug could be causing problems.

-- Sunday AMs:

-- A spot story wrapping up the high points of New Year's Eve that newspapers couldn't report for Saturday AMs, including problems parties and any other developments of note.

-- Plus a San Francisco-dated Centerpiece: MIL-WHAT'S NEXT: What will we tell our grandchildren about the 20th century? Will we remember it as the era where machines molded and then remolded California? Will we look back in nostalgia at the natural world's last gasp against the tidal wave of overpopulation and consumption? Or will we pass on homelier details, memories of marching in Berkeley, cruising in Fresno, seeing Disneyland open in Southern California.

-- Monday AMs, BUSINESS: a Los Angeles-dated story on concerns of business and industry as offices and plants open for business on the first working day of Y2K. We will take a close look at any problems experienced over the weekend by California businesses -- particularly those that deal extensively with companies or institutions in countries where Y2K preparations may have been inadequate. Sidebar on what companies have done to prepare for turning on their computers.

-- Monday PMs, BUSINESS: a Los Angeles-dated story with spot coverage of the start of business. The story will be led early with indications of problems in earlier time zones.

-- Tuesday AMs, BUSINESS: a San Jose-dated story on how Silicon Valley, both workers and businesses, handled the first work day back after Y2K. Other spot coverage as warranted, plus glances on statewide Y2K problems.

If you have questions, contact:

Los Angeles -- Anthony Shadid, 213-626-1200

San Francisco -- Noel Wilson, 415-621-7432

Sacramento -- Sharon Theimer, 916-448-9555

The AP

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 11, 1999

Answers

See also...

Paula Zahn of FOX News to do Y2K next week? (Dec. 13-17)

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 001ypc

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 11, 1999.

Also find it "telling" that the Associated Press finds it noteworthy to focus on extremes... rather than those who are just prepared.

"DIGGING IN: a Los Angeles-dated story on what California residents are doing to prepare for worst-case scenarios on New Year's Eve, including runs on stores, hoarding and attempts to ride out the weekend indoors."

Colored agenda... n'est-ce pas?

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 11, 1999.

.... and this will be what is printed and covered.

So it has been decided, so it is scheduled, so it is written, so it shall be done.

---...---...---

Hope the AP told the computers what to do. Notice that the government centers are thoroughly covered, the entertainment industry, the parties - with particular attention to the "extremes" - but NO rational prudent preparations are evn MENTIONED?

Hoarders and revelers and government spokemen aplenty - but no prudent coverage against potential failures?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 12, 1999.