Press Association - History

History

The Press Association was started in 1868 by a group of regional newspaper owners to provide a London-based service of news-collecting and reporting from around the British Isles. The story goes, they came up with idea in the back of a Hansom Cab during a traffic jam as a result of London smog. The news agency’s founders wanted more accurate and reliable news, delivered quicker than the telegraph companies. When it was set up the committee who organised it said “The Press Association is formed on the principle of co-operation and can never be worked for individual profit, or become exclusive in its character”.

Today, the Press Association says its mantra is fast, fair and accurate. The company has gone from a news and sport supplier to traditional media, to a digital organisation that supplies news, sport, images, weather and many other services to numbers of different customers.

A full history of the Press Association was written by Chris Moncrieff, CBE, the former Political Editor of the Press Association in 2001 called "Living on a Deadline."

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