DURHAM, NC (April 9, 2008) – The Associated Press Sports Editors organization reports that they have reached a deal with Major League Baseball over this season's credential language.
APSE's John Cherwa of the Orlando Sentinel says that after six weeks of negotiations, MLB has "delivered a credential agreement that may be satisfactory to the majority of APSE's membership."
The media's dispute with MLB started weeks before this year's season-opening games when journalists discovered the 2008 credential language placed tight restrictions on digital content, photo galleries, and video and audio from games that would be published on the Web.
The National Press Photographers Association was quick to join with other press groups objecting to MLB's revisions to the credential terms and conditions. The new agreement MLB wanted to impose included a cap on the numbers of photos that could be published from a game, the running time of post-game online video and audio, establishing a "take down" time for audio, video, and photo galleries, and having the determination of what a photo gallery consists of to MLB officials.
The major point of contention for most sports editors was MLB's restriction on photo galleries. "The latest credential places no restrictions on galleries except that it be a 'reasonable' number of photos," Cherwa wrote. "Reasonable is the language used in the NFL credential."
NPPA's president Tony Overman twice filed written complaints with MLB's commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig over the credential agreement, and over MLB's apparent willingness to co-opt NFL credential language into baseball's agreement. In late March, NPPA recommended signing the agreement only "under duress."
Cherwa reports that APSE believes the current offer from MLB "is a significant development that meets the needs of members, and recommends the credential can be signed 'conditionally.'" The conditions are ongoing negotiations which may take place at some time closer to the All-Star game.
AP photographers have been told to conditionally sign the agreement, Cherwa said. He said the negotiating team feels the terms are the best they could expect to achieve at this time, while APSE still holds onto the "unwavering stance that there should be no restrictions on photos, audio, or video or any types of new media we haven't thought of."
Cherwa said that while the new credential terms are more favorable to photos, there remain strict guidelines on audio and video. MLB has dictated that 120 seconds of audio and 120 seconds of video, with an archival time of 72 hours, is all that's allowed. Cherwa said that APSE finds this unacceptable in the long run, and this issue will probably be the main point of any future negotiations.
Lawyers for the AP and from the Tribune Company provided significant help in fighting the credential terms, Cherwa said, including AP's Dave Tomlin and Tribune's David Bralow. Also Baltimore Sun editor Tim Franklin, the incoming chair of the ASNE Freedom Of Information committee, played a key role.
