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1951 - 2000
New Media Strengthens The Cooperative |
| 1951 |
William N. Oatis, AP
Prague bureau chief, is charged with espionage in Czechoslovakia and
jailed for 28 months. The Czech government said Oatis was dangerous
because of his insistence on obtaining only "accurate, correct,
verified information." The case makes international headlines.
Oatis is released in May 1953. A Czech court cleared him of the charges
in 1959. |
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The AP launches the first Teletypesetter
circuit operated by a news service. Copy is edited at the AP bureau
and punched on paper tape in lines justified for the Teletypesetting
machines. Stories are sent at a speed of 53 words per minute-later
raised to 66 wpm-and the type is set automatically at the newspaper
plant.
Radio Photo Service to Latin America
is launched, with El Mercurio of Santiago, Chile, the first subscriber.
The service improves the quality and reduces the transmission time
of photographs to newspapers in Central and South America.
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| 1962 |
AP links its Teletypesetter news wires together for the first time
so that every TTS member newspaper in the United States simultaneously
receives reports of John Glenn's historic orbital flight around the
earth. |
| 1963 |
Stock listings are computerized, replacing manual punching, and
are transmitted on Dataspeed at 1,200 words per minute, a dramatic
increase from 66 words per minute. |
| 1964 |
Saigon chief of bureau Malcolm Browne wins the first of four Pulitzer
Prizes that AP will win in connection with the Vietnam War, notably
for his coverage of the fall of the Diem regime. (See more on AP’s
Pulitzer Prize winners at www.ap.org/pulitzer.) |
| 1967 |
Using satellites, AP transmits news photos between Honolulu and
London for the first time. The pictures move over 100,000 miles of
circuits. The most widely published photo is of Sweden's Crown Prince
Carl Gustaf on Waikiki beach.
The AP-Dow Jones Economic Report, a joint venture of The Associated
Press and Dow Jones & Co., publishers of The Wall Street Journal,
is launched to gather financial news from around the world. |
| 1969 |
FLASH. MAN ON THE MOON. AP dispatches 70 editors, reporters,
photographers, operators and technicians to Houston and Cape Kennedy,
Florida, to document the July 20 lunar landing of astronauts Neil
Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin.
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| 1970 |
AP enters the age of electronic news transmission when copy is filed
from a computer in Atlanta to news and broadcast wires in seven southern
states. Atlanta is the first of ten computerized “hub”
bureaus. |
| 1972 |
Computers began to replace typewriters for writing, editing and
filing stories. Shortly after, AP launches a high-speed service, transmitting
the news report at 1,200 words per minute. The service became known
as DataStream. |
| 1974 |
Associated Press Radio goes on the air live when
Tom Martin feeds the first newscast, "The Top Story at the Top
of the Hour." |
| 1975 |
On April 30, as the North Vietnamese enter
Saigon, George Esper is one of three AP staffers to stay behind after
the last Americans are evacuated from Vietnam. The AP wire linking
the bureau with New York is disconnected by the invading North Vietnamese.
But Esper manages to get his story about the fall of Saigon out by
telephone, and it makes the front page of The New York Times. |
| 1976 |
AP introduces LaserPhoto and the first laser-scanned pictures for
transmission, producing better picture quality. The revolutionary
technology uses a photo paper processed with heat instead of chemistry
and a laser light source instead of the decades-old lamp system. |
| 1979 |
AP is the first news organization to introduce an "electronic
darkroom," a computer that not only transmits photos but also
handles many tasks of the conventional chemical darkroom, such as
cropping and adjusting brightness and contrasts. |
| 1982 |
AP establishes the first satellite color photo
network with LaserPhoto II. The service improves the speed and quality
of AP photos and marks the end of analog transmission over telephone
lines, the technology that created Wirephoto. |
| 1984 |
AP becomes the first news organization to own a satellite transponder.
On March 16, Terry Anderson, the AP's chief Middle East correspondent,
is kidnapped by Islamic militants in Beirut. He is imprisoned six
years and eight months, the longest held and last freed American captive
in the Middle East.
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| 1986 |
AP radio correspondents Bob Moon and Dick Uliano anchor five hours
of live coverage after the Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds
after liftoff on January 28, killing six astronauts and school teacher-astronaut
Christa McAuliffe. |
| 1987 |
AP introduces PhotoStream, a high speed collection and delivery
network for photos that uses satellite circuitry and digital technology.
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| 1990 |
AP begins delivering photos via satellite to AP Leaf Picture Desks,
on computer receiving terminals at newspapers. |
| 1991 |
AP launches GraphicsBank, the first online archive of graphics for
television news programs. |
| 1994 |
AP introduces the AP News Camera 2000, the first of a series of
digital cameras designed for photojournalists.
APTV, a global video newsgathering agency, is launched. Four years
later, APTV merges with WorldWide Television News, forming APTN.
AP All News Radio, a 24-hour news and information network, is created
to provide full-time news programming to radio stations.
AP launches AP AdSEND, a digital ad delivery service that transmits
ads from advertisers and agencies directly to newspapers. |
| 1996 |
AP photographers cover a major event, Super Bowl XXX, using only
digital cameras and no film.
AP produces a news desktop computer system for the British Broadcasting
Corp. that combines text, audio and video, called the Electronic News
Production System (ENPS).
AP launches The WIRE, a continuously updated online news service that
combines text, photos, audio and video. |
| 1998 |
AP signs an agreement to provide online content to Yahoo!
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| 2000 |
From November 7 through November 8, AP resists a stampede by
the television networks and other news organizations to call Florida,
and thus the presidency, for George W. Bush. The election is ultimately
decided by the Supreme Court.
AP Digital is founded to provide AP content to a range of online
customers.
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