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.

History

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.[3] The Eastern states were connected through Adelaide on the completion of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line in 1872.[4] 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.

New Zealand Newswire

After the closure of the AAP's New Zealand counterpart the New Zealand Press Association on 31 August 2011, the AAP launched a New Zealand Newswire (NZN) division on 5 September 2011 with offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.[19] NZN employed 14 journalists split across Auckland and Wellington. NZN closed its digital news video team in September 2017.[20] The AAP shut down its NZ Newswire division on 27 April 2018, and it was the final independent news agency in New Zealand to shut down, with the AAP retaining two full-time journalists in New Zealand.[21]

AAP 2.0

On 20 March 2020, it was announced that AAP's shareholders had decided to break up and shut down the newswire, saying that the service had become unsustainable in competition with free online content.[22] However, before the service closed in June, AAP was bought by a consortium of impact investors and philanthropists led by Peter Tonagh, a former chief of News Corp and Foxtel.[23] The group said they were motivated by a desire to support media diversity, and included Nick Harrington, philanthropist John McKinnon,[24] Fred Woollard the managing director of Samuel Terry Asset Management, and Kylie Charlton the managing director of Australian Impact Investments.[25] The group was made up of 35 investors from five states.[26] It was reported that the sale was made for the price of $1.[26][27] In the year prior to its sale and restructure, the AAP reported a loss of $10 million, $5.4 million of that being from the newswire service.[28]

The service was relaunched as a not-for-profit on 1 August 2020, under the same name, but has been referred to as 'AAP 2.0' when making the distinction from the previous organisation. The newswire was bought by Acta Diurna AAP Limited.[26] It was later renamed Australian Associated Press Limited.[29] The AAP's editor Andrew Drummond remained in the role, Emma Cowdroy was appointed CEO after serving as the AAP's senior legal counsel,[24] making her the only woman at the head of a news agency internationally.[30] Jonty Low was appointed to chair of the AAP board, becoming the first woman to hold the role, as well as the first board chair without a media background.[31] Peter Tonagh became a member of the AAP's board.[32] Nick Harrington joined AAP's executive team as head of strategy and development,[26]

Operations

While news outlets initially sourced content from the AAP predominantly for foreign news and war reporting, they became increasingly reliant on the service for domestic and breaking news.[35] It has been noted that all major newspapers once reported from Canberra's parliamentary press gallery, but in recent times often only AAP and ABC reporters were present.[35][8] As a result, the AAP is considered the silent partner of Australian news outlets.[36]

By the 2010s, it became common practice for newspapers to republish AAP copy, with minor edits and sometimes verbatim, sometimes including an 'AAP' byline and at times omitting one.[8][11] This practice of publishing AAP, and other newswire, copy with little to no changes has been referred to as 'churnalism'.[11][35] Content from the AAP is particularly prevalent on online news sites, as a way to cut down costs.[35] A 2009 study found that the online breaking news sections of The Daily Telegraph and The Age, were more than half unchanged AAP reports, with the remainder predominantly sourced from international newswires, and suggested errors in AAP reporting are spread and republished in a homogeneous news environment.[35] A 2013 study found that when the AAP reported on media relations output like press releases, it most often included little change from the original source, and as a result many newspapers were publishing media release content 'recycled' through the AAP.[37]

After the AAP's 2020 sale and relaunch, its staff was reduced to around 80 editorial positions, and around 10 additional management, IT and support roles.[38] On 5 September 2020, Emma Cowdroy the new chief executive of the AAP admitted that the company was facing significant financial challenges since its relaunch as a not-for-profit; this came about as a result of clients signing on for shorter periods awaiting the entrance of NCA Newswire, a new competitor owned by News Corp Australia a former large shareholder in the AAP, into the market when the companies non-compete clause ends in February 2021.[39] The company appealed for crowd-funding donation from the public.[39] The company also applied for a grant from the Public Interest News Gathering fund which had been started by the federal government, on 18 September 2020 it was announced that the AAP would receive $5 million in funds from the federal government.[40]

type	Not-for-profit
foundation	1935
founder	Keith Murdoch
industry	News agency
location	30-32 Wentworth Avenue, Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia
key people	Emma Cowdroy, CEO Andrew Drummond, Editor-in-chief
products	AAP News AAP FactCheck AAP Photos
revenue	$13,735,646
revenue year	2024
operating income	$26,491,699
income year	2024
net income	$3,238,107
net income year	2024
num employees	130
num employees year	2025
equity	$7,399,338
equity year	2024
assets	$13,739,851
assets year	2024
footnotes	‡R1R‡‡R2R‡
homepage	https://aap.com.au/

Australian Associated Press

History

New Zealand Newswire

AAP 2.0

Operations

Services

Past

Ownership

Past

See also

External links

References