On Thursday (July 14) I took a tour of the Washington Bureau of the Associated Press. I’ve always found AP interesting because it so ubiquitous. You could accuse AP of having monopoly power, although I haven’t seen evidence that they abuse their position in the industry.
I learned quite a bit from the tour. One thing I didn’t know is that AP is actually a non-profit newspaper cooperative. Virtually every major newspaper in the country is a member of the cooperative. AP’s structure has evolved over time, so that today other groups–like online news sites–can also subscribe to AP news service. The Associated Press is also much older than I realized. It was founded in 1848. AP likes to brag that the standard transcript of the Gettysburg address was recorded by an AP reporter.
During our tour we were also introduced to technology that AP has invented over the years to streamline the news gathering process. This was very interesting. Even today they continue to develop technology to allow them to rush events onto the wire. AP strives to have a story on the wire before a typical news event, like a press conference, is over. A writer in the Washington Bureau files an initial report on the event that is updated by the reporter who was there. In some cases an on-site reporter will dictate his story from the event.
Of course, I was particularly interested in touring the photo office. The staff patiently answered the questions I have been accumulating in my mind for some time. While we were there a photo editor showed us an example of a photo that was about to go on the wire. The photo was from the Daily News Record, in Harrisonburg, VA. This was exciting because DNR is a sister newspaper to my brother’s employer, the Page News and Courier.