MELISSA WILLIAMS Associated Press Writer
AP Online
04-20-1998
DALLAS (AP) _ Member publishers and editors marked The Associated Press' 150th anniversary at the news cooperative's annual meeting today with a progress report by president and chief executive officer Louis D. Boccardi noting improved services and the strengthening of the AP news report.
AP chairman Donald E. Newhouse opened the meeting with an excerpt from the AP's anniversary video exhibit at the Newseum in Arlington, Va.
In his report, Boccardi announced the opening of a bureau in Shanghai, the AP's first permanent representation in the Chinese city in more than 50 years. AP already has a bureau in Beijing.
Boccardi reviewed successes of the past year, including production of exclusive state-level enterprise, the creation of a new State Photo Center in Washington, D.C., increasing use of the Internet for reporting and distributing news, and nontraditional business activities such as AdSEND, AP's electronic advertising transmission service.
Boccardi noted that in 1997 the AP began delivering graphics across the Internet and began offering Internet access to AP's digital photo archive.
He also highlighted AP's newest reach into television, with a computer system that enables TV news organizations to operate bureaus and production facilities around the world as if they were all in the same newsroom.
``The BBC was our first customer, but we have recently signed agreements to create systems for CBS News, for the ESPN sports network and for ITN in London,'' he said.
In results of all-mail balloting for the AP's board of directors, four incumbents were re-elected and three new members chosen.
Incumbents re-elected were David E. Easterly, president and COO of Cox Enterprises Inc., representing the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News; Richard J. Harrington, president and CEO of The Thomson Corp., representing The Repository of Canton, Ohio; P. Anthony Ridder, chairman and CEO of Knight Ridder, representing The Miami Herald, and Lissa Walls Vahldiek, vice president and COO of Southern Newspapers, representing The Baytown (Texas) Sun.
New members are Joe Hladky, president and publisher of The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; George B. Irish, vice president and general manager for newspapers of Hearst Newspapers, representing the Albany, N.Y., Times Union, and, representing a city of less than 50,000 population, Uzal H. Martz Jr., president and publisher of the Pottsville (Pa.) Republican.
Hladky will fill the unexpired one-year term of Larry Franklin, who resigned from the board on the sale of Harte-Hanks Newspapers.
The other directors were elected to three-year terms.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee, was to be the featured speaker at the annual AP luncheon following the meeting.
The meeting and luncheon, attended by executives representing AP's 1,523 daily newspapers, were the opening events of the first full day of activities of the Newspaper Association of America's convention.
In his remarks, Boccardi said ``change is the byword of the news business today, making AP's mission bigger and more complicated every year,'' and added: ``We think ... that AP has been through a remarkable evolution to stay equal to the task.''
He also said that amid furor over scandal coverage in Washington, ``we've tried to make the AP report one place where we kept our balance and treated with care sometimes sensational news and frustrating anonymity.''
Later, in an AP panel discussion moderated by Boccardi, Washington bureau chief Jon Wolman said he would give ``an X-rating'' to coverage of the Monica Lewinsky issue: ``an X-rating for content ... also an X-rating for excessive overkill.''
The panel, titled ``A Reporter's Tour of the Day's Headlines,'' also gave details on the turmoil in the Middle East and Russia and the tumbling markets in Asia.
The panel included chief of Middle East services Earleen Fisher, Moscow bureau chief Barry Renfrew, Indonesia bureau chief Geoff Spencer and White House correspondent Terry Hunt.
Ms. Fisher, Renfrew and Spencer outlined the difficulties they deal with in the daily coverage of countries in flux.
Hunt said Washington insiders have noted Clinton's increased interest in foreign affairs during the ongoing independent counsel investigation.
He quipped that even though Clinton's overseas tours have been planned for some time, the suspicion is that the president is on the road so no one can give him a subpoena.
``It's a second-term syndrome. You're greeted more warmly there than at home,'' he said.
A ``Best of Texas'' dinner marking the 150th anniversary, sponsored by A.H. Belo Corp. and The Dallas Morning News, was expected to attract former President Bush, Dallas Mavericks basketball team owner Ross Perot Jr. and Dallas Cowboys football player Bill Bates.
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press All Rights Reserved.
AP Online
04-20-1998
DALLAS (AP) _ Member publishers and editors marked The Associated Press' 150th anniversary at the news cooperative's annual meeting today with a progress report by president and chief executive officer Louis D. Boccardi noting improved services and the strengthening of the AP news report.
AP chairman Donald E. Newhouse opened the meeting with an excerpt from the AP's anniversary video exhibit at the Newseum in Arlington, Va.
In his report, Boccardi announced the opening of a bureau in Shanghai, the AP's first permanent representation in the Chinese city in more than 50 years. AP already has a bureau in Beijing.
Boccardi reviewed successes of the past year, including production of exclusive state-level enterprise, the creation of a new State Photo Center in Washington, D.C., increasing use of the Internet for reporting and distributing news, and nontraditional business activities such as AdSEND, AP's electronic advertising transmission service.
Boccardi noted that in 1997 the AP began delivering graphics across the Internet and began offering Internet access to AP's digital photo archive.
He also highlighted AP's newest reach into television, with a computer system that enables TV news organizations to operate bureaus and production facilities around the world as if they were all in the same newsroom.
``The BBC was our first customer, but we have recently signed agreements to create systems for CBS News, for the ESPN sports network and for ITN in London,'' he said.
In results of all-mail balloting for the AP's board of directors, four incumbents were re-elected and three new members chosen.
Incumbents re-elected were David E. Easterly, president and COO of Cox Enterprises Inc., representing the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News; Richard J. Harrington, president and CEO of The Thomson Corp., representing The Repository of Canton, Ohio; P. Anthony Ridder, chairman and CEO of Knight Ridder, representing The Miami Herald, and Lissa Walls Vahldiek, vice president and COO of Southern Newspapers, representing The Baytown (Texas) Sun.
New members are Joe Hladky, president and publisher of The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; George B. Irish, vice president and general manager for newspapers of Hearst Newspapers, representing the Albany, N.Y., Times Union, and, representing a city of less than 50,000 population, Uzal H. Martz Jr., president and publisher of the Pottsville (Pa.) Republican.
Hladky will fill the unexpired one-year term of Larry Franklin, who resigned from the board on the sale of Harte-Hanks Newspapers.
The other directors were elected to three-year terms.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee, was to be the featured speaker at the annual AP luncheon following the meeting.
The meeting and luncheon, attended by executives representing AP's 1,523 daily newspapers, were the opening events of the first full day of activities of the Newspaper Association of America's convention.
In his remarks, Boccardi said ``change is the byword of the news business today, making AP's mission bigger and more complicated every year,'' and added: ``We think ... that AP has been through a remarkable evolution to stay equal to the task.''
He also said that amid furor over scandal coverage in Washington, ``we've tried to make the AP report one place where we kept our balance and treated with care sometimes sensational news and frustrating anonymity.''
Later, in an AP panel discussion moderated by Boccardi, Washington bureau chief Jon Wolman said he would give ``an X-rating'' to coverage of the Monica Lewinsky issue: ``an X-rating for content ... also an X-rating for excessive overkill.''
The panel, titled ``A Reporter's Tour of the Day's Headlines,'' also gave details on the turmoil in the Middle East and Russia and the tumbling markets in Asia.
The panel included chief of Middle East services Earleen Fisher, Moscow bureau chief Barry Renfrew, Indonesia bureau chief Geoff Spencer and White House correspondent Terry Hunt.
Ms. Fisher, Renfrew and Spencer outlined the difficulties they deal with in the daily coverage of countries in flux.
Hunt said Washington insiders have noted Clinton's increased interest in foreign affairs during the ongoing independent counsel investigation.
He quipped that even though Clinton's overseas tours have been planned for some time, the suspicion is that the president is on the road so no one can give him a subpoena.
``It's a second-term syndrome. You're greeted more warmly there than at home,'' he said.
A ``Best of Texas'' dinner marking the 150th anniversary, sponsored by A.H. Belo Corp. and The Dallas Morning News, was expected to attract former President Bush, Dallas Mavericks basketball team owner Ross Perot Jr. and Dallas Cowboys football player Bill Bates.
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press All Rights Reserved.
