As a longtime AP staffer (left in the mid-1990s), I have been very disappointed at the direction my former employer has taken.
When I started (late 1970s) and for most of my time there, we were the Joe Friday of journalism — the “just the facts” guys/women. Opinions and columns were clearly marked, and we were told, in no uncertain terms, that our opinions were not to go into news stories.
I left in 1995 (family reasons — I wanted a life). The Internet boom began soon after, and a lot of career AP people (10-20 or more years there) began to sift away. AP salaries had begin to drift out of the competitive realm in major markets (especially NYC, where the General Desk is located). Management wasn’t unhappy to see older, costlier people leave — they could hire cheaper labor instead, and since UPI was no longer a viable competitor and Reuters hasn’t made much of a push into the US (business excepted), it has not had a major competitor across the board in years. Some areas face competition; others don’t.
The AP was also very late to the online age. But it finally realized that it held the trump card — content. Having worked at the news site of a major network, it was distressing to see how much AP content we had to use. For better or worse, there is no alternative. Newspapers that already use AP have turned to it for more and more coverage — after all, why hire your own staffer (or why spend the money to send him/her somewhere) when the AP, which they’re already paying for, is already there? That, folks, is how you get profit margins of 20% to 30%,
(BTW: Though there are more broadcast members now, the print folks pretty much still rule the roost).
The AP went outside for its new chairman a few years ago, bringing in Tom Curley from USA Today. Today, the AP has decided it again needs to get rid of a lot of veterans — and that it needs to take a stand in its stories, not just report, but editorialize. Since most members of the media, especially in major markets, are more liberal than the majority of Americans, it’s not surprising that viewpoints will slant to the left.
I still have friends at the AP — many of whom are horrified at what they see today. But since Curley & Co. are trying hard to get rid of them (there’s a major restructuring going on), they may soon have bigger problems.
