Associated Press

The Associated Press
Type Not-for-profit cooperative
Founded New York City, 1846[1]
Headquarters New York City
Key people Tom Curley, President and CEO
Area served Worldwide
Industry News media
Products Wire service
Revenue ▲ $654,186,000 USD 2005[2]
Operating income ▲ $17,959,000 USD 2005[2]
Net income ▲ $18,528,000 USD 2005[2]
Employees 4,100
Website 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. 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. OtherEnglish-language news services, such as Reuters and the English language service of Agence France-Presse, are based outside the United States.

Contents

History

The AP was formed in May 1846[1] 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.

AP Sports Polls

Main article: AP Poll
The Associated Press Building in New York City. (The AP moved from this building in 2004.)

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[4], New York Daily News[5], and Star Tribune of Minneapolis[6], as well as smaller-market publications such as The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash.[7] and The Bakersfield Californian[8]. 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[9]. While OHNO allows these newspapers to share local stories without submitting them to the AP, all remain Associated Press members.

Controversies

Jamil Hussein

Main article: Jamil Hussein controversy

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.[10]

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."[11]

Tuvia Grossman

Main article: 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.[12]

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.”[13] 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.[14]

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.[15]

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 authoritative style that would posit conclusions when conflicting opinions were presented in a story.[16]

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".[17] A Washington Monthly columnist described the piece as "mirror[ing] the Republican line with minimal variation".[18] Editor & Publisher noted that Fournier's article "gained wide linkage at the Drudge Report, Hot Air and numerous other conservative sites...."[19]

Coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention

Several media outlets, including Editor & Publisher magazine[20], MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann[21], and the blog Gawker[22], raised issue with AP reporter Charles Babington's analysis "Obama spares details, keeps up attacks."[1]. 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)."[23] Recently, Mr. Babbington has been more critical of the McCain campaign, writing an article on September 11th questioning the accuracy of his recent ads.[24]

Governance

The Associated Press is governed by an elected board of directors.

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.[26]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Associated Press (2005-01-31). "19th-century papers shed new light on origin of The Associated Press". Press release.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Consolidated Financial Statements, The Associated Press and Subsidiaries: Years ended December 31, 2005 and 2004". Associated Press (2006-03-07). Retrieved on 2006-10-13.
  3. ↑ "9/11 attacks harm First Amendment" AP, 8 March 2008
  4. ↑ "Dow Jones to carry Agence France-Presse, drop AP". Reuters (2008-03-18). Retrieved on 2008-08-27.
  5. ↑ "New-Media Focus Splits Associated Press Members". The Wall Street Journal (2008-06-26). Retrieved on 2008-08-27.
  6. ↑ "Strib tells AP: we're canceling". MinnPost (2008-08-26). Retrieved on 2008-08-27.
  7. ↑ "The AP rift". Still a Newspaperman (2008-08-19). Retrieved on 2008-08-27.
  8. ↑ "Four More Newspapers Intend To Drop AP Over Rates". Editor & Publisher (2008-08-20). Retrieved on 2008-08-27.
  9. ↑ "Oh No They Didn't!". On The Media (2008-04-25). Retrieved on 2008-08-27.
  10. ↑ "Iraq threatens arrest of police officer" AP, 4 January 2007
  11. ↑ "Fib Newton", Slate.com (October 29, 2002). Retrieved on 2008-04-16. "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." 
  12. ↑ "Abruptly, a U.S. Student In Mideast Turmoil's Grip", New York Times (October 7, 2000). "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." 
  13. ↑ Sutel, Seth (June 20, 2008). "AP, blogger resolve dispute over copyright", Yahoo News (AP). Retrieved on 2008-06-20. 
  14. ↑ "The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles in Blogs", New York Times (June 16, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-06-20. "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." 
  15. ↑ Calderone, Michael (2008-07-30). "One of Fournier's job options: McCain", Politico. Retrieved on 2008-08-23. 
  16. ↑ Calderone, Michael (2008-07-14). "Is Fournier saving or destroying the AP?", Politico. Retrieved on 2008-08-23. 
  17. ↑ Fournier, Ron (August 23, 2008). ""Analysis: Biden pick shows lack of confidence", Associated Press. Retrieved on 2008-08-23. 
  18. ↑ Benen, Steve (August 23, 2008). "Fournier Is At It Again", Political Animal, Washington Monthly. Retrieved on 2008-08-23. 
  19. ↑ "MoveOn.org Targets AP's Fournier for Alleged Pro-McCain Bias", Editor & Publisher, August 23, 2008, http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003842038 
  20. ↑ "MSNBC Host Rips AP Reporter's Analysis of Obama Speech", Editor & Publisher (August 29, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-08-29. 
  21. ↑ "Keith Olbermann on Charles Babington's analysis" (August 28, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-08-29. 
  22. ↑ "AP Watched Different Speech Last Night" (August 29, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-08-29. 
  23. ↑ "MSNBC Host Rips AP Reporter's Analysis of Obama Speech", Editor & Publisher (August 29, 2008). Retrieved on 2008-08-29. 
  24. ↑ http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jMtvzhUJmkDwVPsjJ0vhp-MDl1-gD934RHCG0
  25. ↑ About Us | The Associated Press
  26. ↑ "Google News Becomes A Publisher.", Information Week (August 31, 2007). Retrieved on 2008-04-26. ""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."" 

External links