`== AP competitors == AP is competing in an increasingly saturated market.  Agence France Press?  Xinhua?  New York Times (+ International Herald Tribune)?   : Except for Reuters, AP has no real English-language competition; the other services you name dominate in other languages. I know of no American papers that subscribe solely to the NYTimes and/or Washington Post News services without also subscribing to AP. AP is cheaper and far broader as far as breaking news goes.  == History of AP, Brass Check ==  To a Minister of Truth: I suggest Brass Check is a good book for the state of the AP at the turn of the century - there's more to it than Teletypes, after all. And if AP again has a monopoly on wire-servicing (in the animal-husbandry sense) the US public [just how is the UPI comment to be interpreted?], how that has played out in the past ought to be of interest. Especially since the AP is the sole collator of ``election`` ``results`` tomorrow. And if you protest Brass Check is not about the AP, I'll point out the older Library of Congress catalogue entries list ``Associated Press`` as one of its categories.  00:52, 2004 Nov 2 (UTC) (PS: count y'self lucky I merely mentioned the book, and didn't start rewriting the article.)  : There are many, many books about the history of U.S. journalism that contain information about AP which might be of interest to this article, but ``Brass Check`` isn't one of them. It is wildly out of date (especially if you think it has relevance to the current situation; when it was written, AP was a struggling underdog). But of course you are welcome to start rewriting the article - that's the way Wikipedia works! -    :: So put some of THOSE books in, fer cryin out loud. (wait. what? How can what is for years an indebted monopoly spreading completely inverted or entirely fabricated news with impunity qualify as ``struggling underdog``?) Incidentally, check history (unless WP has discarded it for lack of space)  I am not welcome, even when what I write is well-supported. As a for instance: Nurse Nayirah. (I do not contest that this is because of a certain immoderateness in my writing: after the outrage I've watched go on just the past four years - thanks in part to a US press that, in what counts, lies and covers up as baldly as Sinclair described 85 years ago - I cannot be moderate. If there were moderates taking my place I'd be happy; but so many waste themselves on absolute bread-and-circus garbage like American Idle.) I limit login now to when I express something that's only my opinion.  23:13, 2004 Nov 2 (UTC)  ::Oh, I forgot to mention: someone thinks Brass Check interesting enough that the U of Illinois Press reprinted it about two years ago (ISBN 0252071107)  02:51, 2004 Nov 3 (UTC)  AP's television service is now known as APTN  Note: The picture on the main entry page shows the AP's old headquarters in Rockefeller Center. The company has since moved to Manhattan's West Side.   == Retracted Stories ==  If we're going to list every retracted story that AP, or any other wire service, has run over the years, we're going to have to double the size of wikipedia! So I removed the long, rambling account of one such case, since it lacked context. Discussion about the merits, or lack thereof, of the wire service are certainly valuable additions to the article, but not in the form of a rant. -     == Explanation of AP fees == This was originally posted on the Reference Desk with the title ``Is news public domain?``  It seems from the public domain article that facts are in the public domain, but reporting of them may not be.  A news agency might do a lot of work to collect some news and expect just compensation.  So how is it that news stories can be ``picked up`` by competing agencies, e.g., the Associated Press picking up a story in a local newspaper?  Isn't that local news story under copyright?  Is there a fee involved or some sort of professional agreement?  Thanks.  15:10, 2004 Nov 16 (UTC) :As you can see from the article on the AP, it's owned by its contributing newspapers.  A local newspaper allows its stories to be used by the AP because it has the opportunity to use AP wire stories itself.  So, the answer is that the news story is certainly under copyright, and the only fees/professional arrangements involved are the money and agreements necessary to maintain the AP. -) [[User:Jwrosenzweig|Jwrosen