Associated Press

Infobox Co-operative
company_name = "The Associated Press"
company_
company_type = Not-for-profit cooperative
foundation = New York City, 1846cite press release |title=19th-century papers shed new light on origin of The Associated Press |publisher=Associated Press |author=Pyle, Richard |date=2005-01-31 |url=http://www.ap.org/pages/about/whatsnew/wn_013106a.html ]
location = New York City
key_people = Tom Curley, President and CEO
area_served = Worldwide
industry = News media
products = Wire service
revenue = profit $654,186,000 USD 2005cite web | title=Consolidated Financial Statements, The Associated Press and Subsidiaries: Years ended December 31, 2005 and 2004| publisher=Associated Press | date=2006-03-07 | url=http://www.ap.org/media/pdf/AP_financials_05.pdf | accessdate=2006-10-13 ]
operating_income = profit $17,959,000 USD 2005
net_income = profit $18,528,000 USD 2005
num_employees = 4,100
homepage = [http://www.ap.org ap.org] The Associated Press (AP) is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staffers. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, paying a fee to use AP material without being contributive members of the cooperative.

As of|2005, the AP's news is published and republished by more than 1,700 newspapers, in addition to more than 5,000 television and radio broadcasters. The cooperative's photograph library consists of more than 10 million images. It operates 243 news bureaus and serves 121 countries, with a diverse international staff drawing from all over the world.

As part of their cooperative agreement with the Associated Press, most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the AP to distribute their local news reports. For example, on page two of every edition of The Washington Post, the newspaper's masthead includes the statement, "The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and all local news of spontaneous origin published herein."

The "AP Stylebook" has become the de facto standard for news writing in the United States.Facts|date=July 2008 The AP employs the "inverted pyramid formula" for writing that enables news outlets to edit a story to fit its available publication space without losing the story's essential meaning and news information.

The decline of AP's traditional rival, United Press International, as a major American competitor in 1993 left the AP as the only nationally oriented news service based in the United States. Other English-language news services, such as Reuters and the English language service of Agence France-Presse, are based outside the United States.

History

The AP was formed in May 1846 by a group of American newspapers that sought to pool resources in order to better collect and report news coming from Europe. Prior to this, the newspapers had competed by sending reporters out in rowboats to meet ships bringing news from Europe as they arrived in the harbor. The owners of these newspapers realized that they were all paying for essentially the same information and determined it would be more cost effective to have a service collect and pay for all the information once via telegraph. Their new organization originally was named the Harbor News Association; it later was renamed the Associated Press. A driving force in the organization's formation was Moses Yale Beach, publisher of the New York Sun, when he invited other New York publishers to join the Sun in a cooperative venture to cover the Mexican-American War. The four New York papers that joined in the agreement with the Sun were the Journal of Commerce, the Courier and Enquirer, the Herald, and the Express.
* 1849: the Harbor News Association opened the first news bureau outside the United States, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to meet ships sailing from Europe before they reached dock in New York.
* 1861: Facing censorship in covering the American Civil War, reporters first filed under the anonymous byline "from the Associated Press agent."
* 1876: Mark Kellogg, a stringer, is the first AP news correspondent to be killed while reporting the news, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. His final dispatch: "I go with (Commander George Armstrong) Custer and will be at the death."
* 1893: Melville E. Stone becomes the general manager of the reorganized AP, a post he holds until 1921. Under his leadership, the AP grows to be one of the world's most prominent news agencies.
* 1899: AP uses Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraph to cover the America's Cup yacht race off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, the first news test of the new technology.
* 1914: AP introduces the Teletype, which transmitted directly to printers over telegraph wires. Eventually a worldwide network of 60-word-per-minute Teletype machines is built.
* 1919: Upton Sinclair includes a scathing criticism of the AP in his investigative book on contemporary journalism, "The Brass Check".
* 1935: AP initiates WirePhoto, the world's first wire service for photographs. The first photograph to transfer over the network depicted an airplane crash in Morehouseville, New York, on New Year's Day, 1935.
* 1938: AP expands to new offices at 50 Rockefeller Plaza (known as "50 Rock") in the newly built Rockefeller Center in New York City, which would remain its headquarters for 68 years; in 2004 it relocated to larger facilities at 450 W. 33rd St. in Manhattan.
* 1941: AP expands from print to radio broadcast news.
* 1945: AP Paris bureau chief Edward Kennedy defies an Allied headquarters news blackout to report Nazi Germany’s surrender, touching off a bitter episode that leads to his eventual dismissal by the AP. Kennedy maintains that he reported only what German radio already had broadcast.
* 1994: AP launches APTV, a global video newsgathering agency, headquartered in London.
* 2004: The AP moves its headquarters from 50 Rock to W. 33rd St.
* 2008: Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley states that "shadow of the September 11 terror attacks is eclipsing press freedom and other constitutional safeguards in the United States." [ [http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/03/08/911_attacks_harm_first_amendment/ "9/11 attacks harm First Amendment"] "AP", 8 March 2008]

AP Sports Polls

The AP is known for its Associated Press polls on numerous college sports in the United States. The AP polls ranking the top 25 NCAA Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision) college football and NCAA Division I men's and women's college basketball teams are the most well known. The AP composes the polls by collecting and compiling the top-25 votes of numerous designated sports journalists. The AP poll of college football was particularly notable for many years because it helped determine the ranking of teams at the end of the regular season for the collegiate Bowl Championship Series until the AP, citing conflict of interest, asked for the poll to be removed from the bowl series. Beginning in the 2005 season, the Harris Interactive College Football Poll took the AP's place in the bowl series formula. The AP poll is the longest serving national poll in college football, having begun in 1936.

Each year on 31 March the AP announces the winner of the NCAA Men's basketball "player of the year" (POY) award.

Associated Press Television News

In 1994, London-based Associated Press Television (APTV) was founded to provide agency news material to television broadcasters. Other existing providers of such material at the time were Reuters Television and Worldwide Television News (WTN).

In 1998, APTV left the Associated Press building in the Central London and merged with WTN to create Associated Press Television News (APTN) in the existing WTN building in North London.

Cancellations

2008 has seen an increase in the number of two-year notices of intent to cancel services. News organizations cited its cost, its commoditization in an era of free online news, and a renewed emphasis on original content to remain relevant in such an environment. Among the organizations cancelling are larger outlets like Dow Jones [cite web |url=http://www.reuters.com/article/industryNews/idUSN1824133720080318 |title=Dow Jones to carry Agence France-Presse, drop AP |accessdate=2008-08-27 |publisher=Reuters |date=2008-03-18 ] , New York Daily News [cite web |url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121444598979205887.html |title=New-Media Focus Splits Associated Press Members |accessdate=2008-08-27 |publisher=The Wall Street Journal |date=2008-06-26 ] , and Star Tribune of Minneapolis [cite web |url=http://www.minnpost.com/davidbrauer/2008/08/26/3130/strib_tells_ap_were_canceling |title=Strib tells
] , as well as smaller-market publications such as The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash. [cite web |url=http://www.stillanewspaperman.com/2008/08/19/the-ap-rift/ |title=The AP rift |accessdate=2008-08-27 |publisher=Still a Newspaperman |date=2008-08-19 ] and The Bakersfield Californian [cite web |url=http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003840644 |title=Four More Newspapers Intend To Drop AP Over Rates |accessdate=2008-08-27 |publisher=Editor & Publisher |date=2008-08-20 ] . In addition, eight Ohio newspapers have created their own local network, the Ohio News Organization, including The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, The Columbus Dispatch and The Cincinnati Enquirer [cite web |url=http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2008/04/25/04 |title=Oh No They Didn't! |accessdate=2008-08-27 |publisher=On The Media |date=2008-04-25 ] . While OHNO allows these newspapers to share local stories without submitting them to the AP, all remain Associated Press members.

Controversies

Jamil Hussein

Some questions were raised about the legitimacy of police captain Jamil Hussein as a source for AP reporting of sectarian violence in Iraq. On January 4, 2007 the Iraqi Interior Ministry recognized Jamil as an active member of the Baghdad police force, and said he faces arrest for talking to journalists. Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf, who had previously denied the existence of Hussein, acknowledged that the officer was assigned to the Khadra police station. [ [http://www.ap.org/FOI/foi_010407a.html "Iraq threatens arrest of police officer"] "AP", 4 January 2007]

Christopher Newton

The Associated Press fired Washington, D.C. bureau reporter Christopher Newton in September 2002, accusing him of fabricating at least 40 people and organizations since 2000. Some of the nonexistent agencies quoted in his stories included "Education Alliance," the "Institute for Crime and Punishment in Chicago," "Voice for the Disabled," and "People for Civil Rights." [cite news |url=http://www.slate.com/?id=2073304 |title=Fib Newton |quote=The Associated Press accused Washington bureau reporter Christopher Newton of journalistic fraud last month and sacked him. The AP alleges that in at least 40 of the many hundred stories Newton wrote for the wire service between January 13, 2000, and September 8, 2002, Newton quoted sources who appear not to exist. |date=October 29, 2002 |publisher=Slate.com |accessdate=2008-04-16 ]

Tuvia Grossman

During the Second Intifada a caption of an Associated Press photograph of an Israeli police officer defending him from a violent Palestinian mob misidentified him as a Palestinian instead of as a Jewish-American. The photograph, publicized in "The New York Times", "The Wall Street Journal", and other newspaper publications worldwide, suggested Israeli brutality by the officer acting in Tuvia's defense. [cite news |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E5DB153CF934A35753C1A9669C8B63&scp=1&sq=Tuvia&st=nyt |title=Abruptly, a U.S. Student In Mideast Turmoil's Grip |date=October 7, 2000 |publisher=New York Times |quote = The A.P., which had received many pictures of injured Palestinians that day, did not clarify the garbled caption but sent the picture to subscribers with a caption based on the erroneous assumption that Mr. Grossman was a Palestinian. It also misidentified the site, first as the Temple Mount and later as another site in the Old City. Many newspapers published the picture and erroneous captions based on The A.P.'s information. The New York Times misidentified Mr. Grossman in last Saturday's issue as a Palestinian and in some copies misidentified the site as the Temple Mount.]

Bloggers and Fair Use

In June 2008 Associated Press stated it would be defining guidelines on how many words from its articles and broadcasts could be excerpted by internet bloggers and Web sites without infringing on its copyright. Its first initiative was a letter to Rogers Cadenhead's "Drudge Retort" news links site requesting the removal of items quoting from 39 to 79 words of AP articles. After an outcry from bloggers, A.P. admitted its letter to Drudge Retort was “heavy-handed.” [cite news |work=Yahoo News (AP)|url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080620/ap_on_hi_te/ap_blogger_2 |first=Seth |last=Sutel |title=AP, blogger resolve dispute over copyright |date=June 20, 2008 |accessdate=2008-06-20 ] It later clarified that it would challenge blog postings “when we feel the use is more reproduction than reference, or when others are encouraged to cut and paste.” It then retreated from that position, announcing it would be reviewing its standards. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/business/media/16ap.html?_r=1&oref=slogin |title=The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles in Blogs|quote=The Associated Press, one of the nation’s largest news organizations, said that it will, for the first time, attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.’s copyright. |publisher=New York Times |date= June 16, 2008 |accessdate=2008-06-20 ]

Ron Fournier

In 2004, Ron Fournier, a reporter with the AP's Washington bureau, left the AP to take a Harvard Institute of Politics fellowship. During this period, he also co-wrote the book "Applebee's America" with Matthew Dowd, a Republican strategist, and Doug Sosnik, a Democratic strategist. In 2006, he took a position as editor-in-chief of a new Internet website called Hotsoup.com, which aimed to foster discussion on a number of topics including politics. The site failed to catch on, however, and Fournier returned to the AP in March 2007 as its Online Political Editor, after considering a “a senior advisory role” with John McCain's presidential campaign. [cite news |first=Michael |last=Calderone |title= One of Fournier's job options: McCain|url=http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=70AFE0F1-3048-5C12-001A56872008C572|publisher= Politico|date= 2008-07-30 |accessdate=2008-08-23]

In May 2008, Fournier was named the acting Washington bureau chief, replacing his "mentor" Sandy Johnson. Since taking over the position, Fournier has led a dramatic shift in the AP's policy, moving it away from the neutral and objective tone it had become known for and toward a more opinionated style that would make judgments when conflicting opinions were presented in a story. [cite news |first=Michael |last=Calderone |title= Is Fournier saving or destroying the AP?|url=http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=1DA639E4-3048-5C12-0010F30E475931F7|publisher= Politico|date= 2008-07-14 |accessdate=2008-08-23]

On August 23, 2008, following U.S. Senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's announcement of his selection of Senator Joe Biden as a running mate, Fournier wrote a widely circulated piece entitled "Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence". [cite news |first=Ron |last=Fournier |title= "Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence |url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080823/ap_on_el_ge/veepstakes_analysis |publisher=Associated Press |date= August 23, 2008 |accessdate=2008-08-23 ] A "Washington Monthly" columnist described the piece as "mirror [ing] the Republican line with minimal variation". [cite news |first=Steve |last=Benen |title= Fournier Is At It Again |url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_08/014385.php |publisher= Washington Monthly |work=Political Animal |date= August 23, 2008 |accessdate=2008-08-23 ] "Editor & Publisher" noted that Fournier's article "gained wide linkage at the Drudge Report, Hot Air and numerous other conservative sites...." [citation |title = MoveOn.org Targets AP's Fournier for Alleged Pro-McCain Bias |newspaper=Editor & Publisher |year=2008 |date=August 23, 2008 |url=http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003842038 ]

Coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention

Several media outlets, including "Editor & Publisher" magazine [cite news |title=MSNBC Host Rips AP Reporter's Analysis of Obama Speech |url=http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003844063 |publisher="Editor & Publisher" |date=August 29, 2008 |accessdate=2008-08-29] , MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann [cite news |title=Keith Olbermann on Charles Babington's analysis |url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5wOUCnJwQ0 |date= August 28, 2008 |accessdate=2008-08-29] , and the blog Gawker [cite news |title=AP Watched Different Speech Last Night |url=http://gawker.com/5043498/ap-watched-different-speech-last-night |date= August 29, 2008 |accessdate=2008-08-29 ] , raised issue with AP reporter Charles Babington's analysis "Obama spares details, keeps up attacks." [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5joxG_JOXv3j2ZcUqOBBQKDtTVTJAD92RMQE80] . According to "Editor & Publisher", Babington's article, which was critical of the speech's supposed lack of substance, was transmitted alongside a second AP piece that "offered a detailed look at seven specific policy proposals in the speech (and expressed doubts about all of them)." [cite news |url=http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003844063 |title=MSNBC Host Rips AP Reporter's Analysis of Obama Speech |publisher="Editor & Publisher" |date= August 29, 2008 |accessdate=2008-08-29 ] Recently, Mr. Babbington has been more critical of the McCain campaign, writing an article on September 11th questioning the accuracy of his recent ads. [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jMtvzhUJmkDwVPsjJ0vhp-MDl1-gD934RHCG0]

Governance

The Associated Press is governed by an elected board of directors.
*William Dean Singleton, Chairman and CEO, MediaNews Group, Denver, Colorado
*Tom Curley, President & CEO
*R. Jack Fishman, Publisher and Managing editor, Citizen Tribune, Morristown, Tennessee
*Dennis J. FitzSimons, Chairman President and CEO, Tribune Company, Chicago, Illinois
*Walter E. Hussman Jr., Publisher, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Little Rock, Arkansas
*Julie Inskeep, Publisher, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana
*Boisfeuillet (Bo) Jones, Publisher and CEO, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
*Mary Junck, President and CEO, Lee Enterprises, Davenport, Iowa
*David Lord, President, Pioneer Newspapers, Seattle, Washington
*Kenneth W. Lowe, President and CEO, E.W. Scripps Company, Cincinnati, Ohio
*Douglas H. McCorkindale, Chairman, Gannett, McLean, Virginia
*R. John Mitchell, Publisher, Rutland Herald, Rutland, Vermont
*Steven O. Newhouse, Chairman, Advance.Net, New York, New York
*Gary Pruitt, Chairman, President and CEO, The McClatchy Company, Sacramento, California
*Michael E. Reed, CEO, Liberty Group Publishing, Inc., Downer's Grove, Illinois
*Bruce T. Reese, President and CEO, Bonneville International, Salt Lake City, Utah
*Jon Rust, Publisher, Southeast Missourian, Cape Girardeau, Missouri
*Jay R. Smith, President, Cox Newspapers, Atlanta, Georgia
*David Westin, President, ABC News, New York, New York
*H. Graham Woodlief, President, Publishing Division, Media General, Richmond, Virginia [ [http://www.ap.org/pages/about/board.html About Us | The Associated Press] ]

Web resource

The AP's multi-topic structure has lent itself well to web portals, such as Yahoo, msn.com, etc, which all have news pages which constantly need to be updated. Often, such portals will rely on AP and other news services as their first source for news coverage of breaking news items. Yahoo's "Top News" page gives the AP top visibility out of any news outlet. This has been of major impact to the AP's public image and role, as it gives new credence to the AP's continual mission of having staff for covering every area of news fully and promptly. The AP is also the news service used on the Nintendo Wii's News Channel. In 2007 Google announced it was paying for Associated Press content displayed in Google News. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Google News Becomes A Publisher. |url=http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=PBT2QGMTUGF0AQSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=201803549&_requestid=555255 |quote="Because the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, U.K. Press Association and the Canadian Press don't have a consumer Web site where they publish their content, they have not been able to benefit from the traffic that Google News drives to other publishers," Josh Cohen, business product manager for Google News, explained in a blog post. "As a result, we're hosting it on Google News." |publisher=Information Week |date=August 31, 2007 |accessdate=2008-04-26 ]

ee also

*Hal Buell — former head of Photography Service (photo director) at AP.
*United States journalism scandals

References

External links

* [http://www.ap.org Associated Press]
* [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/fronts/HOME?SITE=AP News from The Associated Press]
* [http://poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=98708 Article about AP by the Poynter Institute]
* [http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pressreleases/pr_071904.html AP leaves 50 Rock for West 33rd Street Headquarters] , August 19, 2004. Accessed on October 2, 2006.
* [http://www.amazon.com/dp/1568986890 Breaking News: How the Associated Press has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else, "Reporters of the Associated Press, Foreword by David Halberstam, (Princeton Architectural Press: 2007)"]