association . associated press type not for profit cooperative industry news media founded may 22 1846 ; 170 years ago 1846 05 22 1 headquarters 450 west 33rd street new york city new york 10001 u.s area served worldwide key people mary junck chairman gary pruitt president and ceo products wire service revenue 568.13 million 2015 2 operating income 13.9 million 2015 2 net income 183.6 million 2015 2 number of employees 3 200 website www.ap.org the ap headquarters in october 2008 located at 450 west 33rd street in new york city . the associated press ap is an american multinational nonprofit news agency headquartered in new york city and operated as a cooperative unincorporated association . the ap is owned by its contributing newspapers radio and television stations in the united states all of which contribute stories to the ap and use material written by its staff journalists . most of the ap staff are union members and are represented by the newspaper guild which operates under the communication workers of america which operates under the afl cio . as of 2007 news collected by the ap was published and republished by more than 1 700 newspapers in addition to more than 5 000 television and radio broadcasters . the photograph library of the ap consists of over 10 million images . the ap operates 243 news bureaus in 120 countries . it also operates the ap radio network which provides newscasts twice hourly for broadcast and satellite radio and television stations . many newspapers and broadcasters outside the united states are ap subscribers paying a fee to use ap material without being contributing members of the cooperative . as part of their cooperative agreement with the ap most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the ap to distribute their local news reports . the ap employs the inverted pyramid formula for writing that enables the news outlets to edit a story to fit its available publication area without losing the story s essentials . cutbacks at rival united press international in 1993 left the ap as the united states primary news service although upi still produces and distributes stories and photos daily . other english language news services such as the british broadcasting corporation reuters and the english language service of agence france presse are based outside the united states . contents 1 history 1.1 web resource 2 key events timeline 3 ap sports polls 4 ap sports awards 4.1 baseball 4.2 basketball 4.3 football 5 associated press television news 6 litigation and controversies 6.1 breach of contract and unfair competition 6.2 christopher newton 6.3 fair use controversies 6.4 copyright and intellectual property 6.4.1 shepard fairey 6.4.2 hot news 6.5 illegal immigrant 6.6 hoax tweet and flash crash 6.7 justice department subpoena of phone records 6.8 biased reporting 6.8.1 israel and palestine 6.8.2 syria 6.9 sea slavery and overreach 6.10 collaboration with nazi germany 7 governance 8 see also 9 references 9.1 bibliography 10 external links history edit logo on the former ap building in new york city associated press is a not for profit news cooperative formed in may 1846 3 by five daily newspapers in new york city to share the cost of transmitting news of the mexican american war by boat horse express and telegraph . the venture was organized by moses yale beach 1800 68 second publisher of the the sun joined by the new york herald the new york courier and enquirer the journal of commerce and the new york evening express . some historians who believe that the tribune joined at this time ; documents show it was a member in 1849 . the new york times became a member shortly after its founding in september 1851 . initially known as the new york associated press nyap the organization faced competition from the western associated press 1862 which criticized its monopolistic news gathering and price setting practices . an investigation completed in 1892 by victor lawson editor and publisher of the chicago daily news revealed that several principals of the nyap had entered into a secret agreement with united press a rival organization to share nyap news and the profits of reselling it . the revelations led to the demise of the nyap and in december 1892 the western associated press was incorporated in illinois as the associated press . a 1900 illinois supreme court decision inter ocean publishing co. v. associated press that the ap was a public utility and operating in restraint of trade resulted in ap s move from chicago to new york city where corporation laws were more favorable to cooperatives . citation needed when the ap was founded news became a salable commodity . the invention of the rotary press allowed the new york tribune in the 1870s to print 18 000 papers per hour . during the civil war and spanish american war there was a new incentive to print vivid on the spot reporting . melville stone who had founded the chicago daily news in 1875 served as ap general manager from 1893 to 1921 . he embraced the standards of accuracy impartiality and integrity . the cooperative grew rapidly under the leadership of kent cooper served 1925 48 who built up bureau staff in south america europe and after world war ii the middle east . he introduced the telegraph typewriter or teletypewriter into newsrooms in 1914 . in 1935 ap launched the wirephoto network which allowed transmission of news photographs over leased private telephone lines on the day they were taken . this gave ap a major advantage over other news media outlets . while the first network was only between new york chicago and san francisco eventually ap had its network across the whole united states . 4 in 1945 the supreme court of the united states held in associated press v. united states that ap had been violating the sherman antitrust act by prohibiting member newspapers from selling or providing news to nonmember organizations as well as making it very difficult for nonmember newspapers to join the ap . the decision facilitated the growth of its main rival united press international headed by hugh baillie from 1935 to 1955 . ap entered the broadcast field in 1941 when it began distributing news to radio stations ; it created its own radio network in 1974 . in 1994 it established aptv a global video newsgathering agency . aptv merged with worldwide television news in 1998 to form aptn which provides video to international broadcasters and websites . in 2004 ap moved its world headquarters from its longtime home at 50 rockefeller plaza to a huge building at 450 west 33rd street in manhattan which also houses the new york daily news and the studios of new york s public television station wnet . in 2009 ap had more than 240 bureaus globally . its mission to gather with economy and efficiency an accurate and impartial report of the news has not changed since its founding but digital technology has made the distribution of the ap news report an interactive endeavor between ap and its 1 400 u.s. newspaper members as well as broadcasters international subscribers and online customers . the ap began diversifying its news gathering capabilities and by 2007 ap was generating only about 30 % of its revenue from united states newspapers . 37 % came from the global broadcast customers 15 % from online ventures and 18 % came from international newspapers and from photography . 5 web resource edit the ap s multi topic structure has resulted in web portals such as yahoo and msn posting its articles often relying on ap as their first source for news coverage of breaking news items . this and the constant updating evolving stories require has had a major impact on the ap s public image and role giving new credence to the ap s ongoing mission of having staff for covering every area of news fully and promptly . the ap is also the news service used on the wii s news channel . 6 in 2007 google announced that it was paying to receive associated press content to be displayed in google news 7 though this was interrupted from late 2009 to mid 2010 due to a licensing dispute . 8 9 key events timeline edit 1849 the harbor news association opened the first news bureau outside the united states in halifax nova scotia to meet ships sailing from europe before they reached dock in new york . 1876 mark kellogg a stringer was the first ap news correspondent to be killed while reporting the news at the battle of the little bighorn . 1893 melville e. stone became the general manager of the reorganized ap a post he held until 1921 . under his leadership the ap grew to be one of the world s most prominent news agencies . 1899 ap used guglielmo marconi s wireless telegraph to cover the america s cup yacht race off sandy hook new jersey the first news test of the new technology . 1914 ap introduced the teleprinter which transmitted directly to printers over telegraph wires . eventually a worldwide network of 60 word per minute teleprinter machines is built . 1935 ap initiated wirephoto the world s first wire service for photographs . the first photograph to transfer over the network depicted an airplane crash in morehouse new york on new year s day 1935 . 1938 ap expanded new offices at 50 rockefeller plaza known as 50 rock in the newly built rockefeller center in new york city which would remain its headquarters for 66 years . 10 1941 ap expanded from print to radio broadcast news . 1941 wide world news photo service purchased from the new york times . 11 1945 ap war correspondent joseph morton was executed along with nine oss men and four british soe agents by the germans at mauthausen concentration camp . morton was the only allied correspondent to be executed by the axis during world war ii . that same year ap paris bureau chief edward kennedy defied an allied headquarters news blackout to report nazi germany s surrender touching off a bitter episode that leads to his eventual dismissal by the ap . kennedy maintains that he reported only what german radio already had broadcast . 1951 ap war correspondent prague bureau chief william n. oatis was arrested for espionage by the communist government of czechoslovakia . he was not released until 1953 . 1994 ap launches aptv a global video news gathering agency headquartered in london . 2004 the ap moved its headquarters from 50 rock to 450 w. 33rd street new york city . 10 2006 ap joined youtube . 2008 the ap launched ap mobile initially known as the ap mobile news network a multimedia news portal that gives users news they can choose and provides anytime access to international national and local news . ap was the first to debut a dedicated iphone application in june 2008 on stage at apple s wwdc event . the app offered ap s own worldwide coverage of breaking news sports entertainment politics and business as well as content from more than 1 000 ap members and third party sources . 12 2010 ap launched multi device world cup soccer applications providing real time news coverage of the 2010 world cup on desktop apple and android devices . 2010 ap earnings fall 65 % from 2008 to just 8.8 million . the ap also announced that it would have posted a loss of 4.4 million had it not liquidated its german language news service for 13.2 million . 13 2011 ap revenue dropped 14.7 million in 2010 . 2010 revenue totaled 631 million a decline of 7 % from the previous year . ap rolled out price cuts designed to help newspapers and broadcasters cope with declining revenue . 2012