Australian Associated Press has asked reporters scheduled to leave this month to stay on after several 11th hour bids were made to buy the business.

Chief executive Bruce Davidson told staff a number of unexpected offers to buy “the entire AAP operation, including the Newswire, Pagemasters and Medianet” was made and the shareholders believed it was worth investigating.

“This development was not expected by management, the AAP board or the AAP shareholders,” Davidson said.

“AAP’s shareholders have now asked me to enter into discussions with the interested parties to determine if any of these approaches offer a credible and sustainable future for AAP.”

Earlier this month AAP announced the newswire would have to close after major shareholders Nine Entertainment and News Corp Australia said the 85-year-old institution was unsustainable.

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance has also called for AAP to remain open in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the @MEAA have appealed to @AAPNewswire shareholders to keep the newswire open through the 2020 calendar year.



Please share and thanks for your support. ✊🏼 #SaveAAP https://t.co/ZWqB8BYbLn pic.twitter.com/DzB2P810uu — Anna Harrington (@AnnaHarrington) March 18, 2020

The independent news wire service and its profitable press release distribution business Medianet employs 600 people and provides more than 500 stories, 750 images and 20 pieces of video each day across news, politics, finance and sport to about 200 subscribers who use it for newspapers, radio news and talkback programs, television news and websites.

On Thursday Davidson warned staff not to get hopes up because so little is known about the lifelines being offered, and the offers would take up to three weeks to negotiate.

“I must stress that at this stage we have no understanding on the viability or otherwise of these approaches,” he said.

“We all should be cautious: nothing may come of these discussions and the interested parties may not be qualified to run a news organisation.”

Davidson would not reveal who is behind the offers, citing confidentiality agreements.

“In the meantime and until we have clarity on this development, AAP will pause activity on our closure timetable and postpone the current redundancy program for a period of at least two weeks,” Davidson said. “Staff who have been recently issued with redundancy notices will be contacted directly later today and will have the option to remain employed.”

Staff, some of whom were due to finish on as early as 27 March, “have the option to remain employed”, he said.

“I understand that this development creates more uncertainty for all of you, and I apologise for adding yet another level of complexity in this difficult time. We have written to all of the parties who have expressed interest in AAP to initiate the information sharing process, and expect this to be completed in 14-21 days.”

Some 200 journalists and 100 photographers were set to lose their jobs when AAP closed.

An earlier suggestion by Davidson to bring in new investors to save the wire was rejected by shareholders, the news service’s Melbourne chief of staff Kaitlyn Offer said in the days after the shock announcement.

Offer said the remarks were made when Davidson and the AAP chairman, Campbell Reid, who is also an executive at News Corp, addressed staff in Melbourne.

Media outlets including Guardian Australia, who rely on the accurate, unbiased reporting AAP provides have called for the service to be continued.

Davidson said the latest approaches had occurred “amid the concern and outpouring of goodwill around AAP’s role in Australian media”.

“It’s heartening to see the value of AAP is being more highly recognised,” he said.





