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Australian Associated Press
Australian Associated Press Ltd (AAP) is an Australian news agency. It was founded in 1935 by Keith Murdoch.
AAP employs around 90 journalists who work in bureaus in all states and territories of Australia except the Northern Territory. It also maintains correspondents in New Zealand and London as well as a network of contributors from the US, Europe, Asia and Africa. AAP's domestic news coverage is complemented by alliances with the major international news agencies.
AAP's main focus is on breaking news but is also known for its court reporting, sport, political coverage, feature stories, and photographs. It also produces video and visual explainers. AAP is one of the few remaining non-government newswires in the world.
Australia was first linked to international telegraph services by a submarine cable that linked Java to Darwin, which was laid by the British-Australian Telegraph Company, and completed on 18 November 1871. The Eastern states were connected through Adelaide on the completion of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line in 1872. As a result, the time it took to transmit news from Europe to Australia was dramatically reduced, having previously taken weeks or months to arrive via post on ships, news could now be transmitted in just hours by telegraph. Anticipating that the cost of sending messages would be high, the Melbourne newspaper The Argus formed an association with The Sydney Morning Herald, creating an agreement with the Reuters news agency for the transmission of news to Australia. This group successfully lobbied the Government of Victoria to pass the first copyright legislation of its kind in the world in 1871, protecting news material transmitted electronically for 24 hours from its first publication.
For a decade prior to 1895, three organisations supplied overseas news to Australia, The Argus group, The Age group, and the Reuters telegraph agency. In 1895, these services merged into the Australian Press Association, which had an exclusive contract with Reuters for its foreign newswire service. A 1909 Senate inquiry found that the association was a monopolistic cartel, and financed a short-lived alternative service. A competitor was established in 1911, called the United Cable Service, which competed for exclusive access to Reuters' foreign newswire service. Initially serving The Sun and The Herald, the service drew on the London newspaper The Times, and would be headed by Keith Murdoch from 1915 to 1921. The Australian Press Association and the United Cable Service agreed on an arrangement for shared access in 1926. In the early 1930s they set up an 'omnibus' service, dividing routine work like court cases and ship movements. When several of the newspapers who were part of the Australian Press Association folded, the two services began discussions on merging. In 1935, Murdoch brokered a merger between the two competitors to cut down costs, which established the Australian Associated Press as a not-for-profit cooperative with 14 newspaper shareholders. The AAP had an initial staff of 12, with London and New York bureaus. Murdoch became the AAP's first chairman, and would serve until 1940. Its charter laid out that the service was to provide:
"the most accurate and most searching information of all the world’s activities and thought without any tendency toward or opportunity for the exercise of political partisanship or bias".
The AAP initially only functioned to provide overseas news to the Australian media, as major newspapers at the time had long-standing groups for local news syndication. In 1947, the agency became a shareholder in the Reuters telegraph agency, providing the AAP with windfall profits as well as representation on the Reuters board. Reuters sent British journalist Duncan Percy Hooper on secondment to AAP and after a year he was appointed AAP's first Editor in September 1949 and later General Manager. On March 31st 1977, Hooper retired as General Manager succeeded by Lee Casey then Assistant General Manager. In addition to its initial bureaux in London and New York, in the 1950s the AAP partnered with the Reuters telegraph agency to post AAP-Reuters correspondents in Asia. In the 1970s, the AAP began to offer federal parliamentary reporting from Canberra as well as court, sports, racing and stock market reporting. By 1972 the AAP had correspondents in Beijing, Los Angeles, Port Moresby, Saigon (today Ho Chi Minh City), Singapore, Suva and Wellington, as well as all Australian states and territories. At this time the AAP experienced a large growth in its newsroom, from 40 journalists in 1970 to 120 in 1980, and as a result of the AAP's high-pressured environment there was also a high turnover of around 1000 journalists in that period.
The AAP launched a full domestic news service in 1980. It was also in the 1980s that the AAP switched from its not-for-profit model to become a commercial service. An attempt to take over the AAP by News Corp, now led by Keith Murdoch's son Rupert Murdoch, by buying half of the shares of the then other largest shareholder Fairfax in 1988 was not allowed to proceed by the Trade Practices Commission. After 60 years of continuous reporting in the country, the AAP shut its bureau in Papua New Guinea in 2014, AAP's departure from the country was criticised by academics and members of the local media for diminishing the quality and quantity of news about Papua New Guinea which made it to Australia. The AAP also closed down its Jakarta office in September 2017 after 35 years, opting to operate its Asia desk from Australia by using international newswires and freelance journalists. In June 2018, the AAP cut its editorial team by 25 staff, around 10% of its then around 220 person editorial personnel. After posting a $10.45 million loss in 2018, it achieved a $929,000 profit in 2019.
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Australian Associated Press
Australian Associated Press Ltd (AAP) is an Australian news agency. It was founded in 1935 by Keith Murdoch.
AAP employs around 90 journalists who work in bureaus in all states and territories of Australia except the Northern Territory. It also maintains correspondents in New Zealand and London as well as a network of contributors from the US, Europe, Asia and Africa. AAP's domestic news coverage is complemented by alliances with the major international news agencies.
AAP's main focus is on breaking news but is also known for its court reporting, sport, political coverage, feature stories, and photographs. It also produces video and visual explainers. AAP is one of the few remaining non-government newswires in the world.
Australia was first linked to international telegraph services by a submarine cable that linked Java to Darwin, which was laid by the British-Australian Telegraph Company, and completed on 18 November 1871. The Eastern states were connected through Adelaide on the completion of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line in 1872. As a result, the time it took to transmit news from Europe to Australia was dramatically reduced, having previously taken weeks or months to arrive via post on ships, news could now be transmitted in just hours by telegraph. Anticipating that the cost of sending messages would be high, the Melbourne newspaper The Argus formed an association with The Sydney Morning Herald, creating an agreement with the Reuters news agency for the transmission of news to Australia. This group successfully lobbied the Government of Victoria to pass the first copyright legislation of its kind in the world in 1871, protecting news material transmitted electronically for 24 hours from its first publication.
For a decade prior to 1895, three organisations supplied overseas news to Australia, The Argus group, The Age group, and the Reuters telegraph agency. In 1895, these services merged into the Australian Press Association, which had an exclusive contract with Reuters for its foreign newswire service. A 1909 Senate inquiry found that the association was a monopolistic cartel, and financed a short-lived alternative service. A competitor was established in 1911, called the United Cable Service, which competed for exclusive access to Reuters' foreign newswire service. Initially serving The Sun and The Herald, the service drew on the London newspaper The Times, and would be headed by Keith Murdoch from 1915 to 1921. The Australian Press Association and the United Cable Service agreed on an arrangement for shared access in 1926. In the early 1930s they set up an 'omnibus' service, dividing routine work like court cases and ship movements. When several of the newspapers who were part of the Australian Press Association folded, the two services began discussions on merging. In 1935, Murdoch brokered a merger between the two competitors to cut down costs, which established the Australian Associated Press as a not-for-profit cooperative with 14 newspaper shareholders. The AAP had an initial staff of 12, with London and New York bureaus. Murdoch became the AAP's first chairman, and would serve until 1940. Its charter laid out that the service was to provide:
"the most accurate and most searching information of all the world’s activities and thought without any tendency toward or opportunity for the exercise of political partisanship or bias".
The AAP initially only functioned to provide overseas news to the Australian media, as major newspapers at the time had long-standing groups for local news syndication. In 1947, the agency became a shareholder in the Reuters telegraph agency, providing the AAP with windfall profits as well as representation on the Reuters board. Reuters sent British journalist Duncan Percy Hooper on secondment to AAP and after a year he was appointed AAP's first Editor in September 1949 and later General Manager. On March 31st 1977, Hooper retired as General Manager succeeded by Lee Casey then Assistant General Manager. In addition to its initial bureaux in London and New York, in the 1950s the AAP partnered with the Reuters telegraph agency to post AAP-Reuters correspondents in Asia. In the 1970s, the AAP began to offer federal parliamentary reporting from Canberra as well as court, sports, racing and stock market reporting. By 1972 the AAP had correspondents in Beijing, Los Angeles, Port Moresby, Saigon (today Ho Chi Minh City), Singapore, Suva and Wellington, as well as all Australian states and territories. At this time the AAP experienced a large growth in its newsroom, from 40 journalists in 1970 to 120 in 1980, and as a result of the AAP's high-pressured environment there was also a high turnover of around 1000 journalists in that period.
The AAP launched a full domestic news service in 1980. It was also in the 1980s that the AAP switched from its not-for-profit model to become a commercial service. An attempt to take over the AAP by News Corp, now led by Keith Murdoch's son Rupert Murdoch, by buying half of the shares of the then other largest shareholder Fairfax in 1988 was not allowed to proceed by the Trade Practices Commission. After 60 years of continuous reporting in the country, the AAP shut its bureau in Papua New Guinea in 2014, AAP's departure from the country was criticised by academics and members of the local media for diminishing the quality and quantity of news about Papua New Guinea which made it to Australia. The AAP also closed down its Jakarta office in September 2017 after 35 years, opting to operate its Asia desk from Australia by using international newswires and freelance journalists. In June 2018, the AAP cut its editorial team by 25 staff, around 10% of its then around 220 person editorial personnel. After posting a $10.45 million loss in 2018, it achieved a $929,000 profit in 2019.