Press Association

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The Press Association is the national news agency of the United Kingdom, supplying news wire to almost all national and local newspapers, TV & radio news as well as many websites. It was founded in 1868 by a consortium of provincial newspaper proprietors as a co-operative in order to supply news items from across the country to its members. It is based in London and Howden and has correspondents throughout Britain.

It is part of the PA Group which includes subsidiaries that specialise in coverage and data of sport, entertainment and business. In turn The Press Association has two subsidiaries, The Scottish Press Association and The Press Association of Ireland (covering Northern and the Republic of Ireland).

The PA produces 150 to 200 stories on weekdays^[1]. The choice of stories by the PA has a large impact on coverage in UK media. A study to quantify this found that 70% of UK news articles in the five most notable quality London based newspapers were largely influenced by the the PA copy (or the few other much smaller agencies in the UK). 30% of stories were simple copies.^[2] It is also considered a highly trusted source by organisations such as the BBC who treat is as "a confirmed, single source".^[3].

The operation of The PA was threatened in 1995 when some newspapers prepared to change their wire source to a new company, UK News. This resulted in severe personnel cutbacks.