Associated Press

Associated Press is listed in the News Agencies section of our US press directory. AP was founded in 1846, when five New York newspapers pooled the cost of covering the Mexican-American War by shared telegraph — a cooperative arrangement it has kept ever since.

It remains a not-for-profit cooperative owned by its member American newspapers and broadcasters rather than by shareholders, which is why AP copy appears in so many US mastheads at once. AP News publishes that reporting directly and free of charge.

Key Facts

Founded: 1846, New York

Headquarters: New York City, United States

Ownership: Not-for-profit news cooperative, owned by its member news organisations

Language: English, with services in Spanish, Arabic and other languages

Reach: Bureaux in around 100 countries

Why It Matters

AP has won more than fifty Pulitzer Prizes, a large share of them for photography, and its election-night vote count is the tally most American news organisations rely on to call races. The AP Stylebook, its house guide to usage, has become the default standard for newsrooms across the English-speaking world.

Coverage

Domestic US politics and statehouse reporting, international news, business and sport, backed by one of the deepest photo and video archives in journalism.