Is the AP Good for America?Lately, the Associated Press (AP) has been the elephant in the newsroom. At face value, the AP seems like a good thing, allowing newspapers to pool their resources to keep costs of reporting non-local news low. But it has always been of questionable value to news consumers, reducing competition among newspapers. And while in the past, membership had its privileges, these days the AP is looking more and more like a competitor that is putting its members out of business.
The AP started out innocently enough, as a clever scheme that seemed like a win-win for newspapers and their readers. NY papers formed this not-for-profit to pool their resources to get news from Europe faster. Knowing that American-bound ships from Europe arrive earlier in more easterly Halifax than NY, the papers dispatched boats from nearby Boston to greet the ships there, collect European news from onboard newspapers and passengers, then telegraph it to NY.
Unfortunately, this benign-sounding scheme had a dark side — it transformed newspapers that had previously been competitors into collaborators. And it didn’t take long before they became colluders, working to snuff out non-member newspapers. The AP papers shrewdly signed an agreement giving telegraph-dominating Western Union exclusive rights to their telegraph business in exchange for higher fees for all other news providers. The AP also drafted bylaws that essentially gave its members veto power over admission of would-be competitors in their local markets.
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I've heard liberals complain since 2000 that media conglomeration hurts journalism and leads to biased, inaccurate reporting. Normally, they use this as an excuse to complain about Fox News and Rupert Murdoch. I agree with them, to a point. The Associated Press has been doing this for much longer than Murdoch and FN. It doesn't matter what newspaper, TV, or radio station you listen to because the majority of them are getting the same stories from the AP, word for word.
