Australian Associated Press (AAP) is Australia's national news agency. The organisation was established in 1935 by Fairfax and The Herald and Weekly Times.
AAP employs more than 175 journalists who work in bureaux in all Australian states and territories. It also maintains correspondents in Port Moresby, London, Auckland, Jakarta and Los Angeles as well as using a network of contributors from the US, Europe, Asia and Africa. AAP's domestic news coverage is complemented by alliances with the major international news agencies.
AAP is owned by four Australian news organisations - News Ltd, Fairfax, West Australian Newspapers (publishers of The West Australian) and Rural Press Limited. Fairfax and News Ltd both own 45% each, West Australian Newspapers 8%, and Rural Press 2%. Together these companies produce the vast majority of Australian newspapers.
AAP's main focus is on breaking news. But it also distributes 'soft' news, colour stories, feature stories, opinion, filler material and photographs.
The editor-in-chief is Tony Gillies.
In the 1990s, AAP's telecommunications division was spun off as a telco, AAPT, now owned by Telecom New Zealand.
Famous quotes containing the words australian and/or press:
“Beyond the horizon, or even the knowledge, of the cities along the coast, a great, creative impulse is at work—the only thing, after all, that gives this continent meaning and a guarantee of the future. Every Australian ought to climb up here, once in a way, and glimpse the various, manifold life of which he is a part.”
—Vance Palmer (1885–1959)
“The press is no substitute for institutions. It is like the beam of a searchlight that moves restlessly about, bringing one episode and then another out of darkness into vision. Men cannot do the work of the world by this light alone. They cannot govern society by episodes, incidents, and eruptions. It is only when they work by a steady light of their own, that the press, when it is turned upon them, reveals a situation intelligible enough for a popular decision.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)