All your questions answered about how the demise of newswire service Australian Associated Press will degrade the journalism you rely on

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

The wires agency Australian Associated Press announced on Tuesday it will close in June, with 180 jobs being lost. A lot of people are outraged. What is a wires agency?

A wires agency is a behind-the-scenes outlet that keeps the newspapers and websites you read each day ticking over.

Like any standard newspaper, it employs a team of reporters and photojournalists who attend press conferences, news and entertainment events, and courts hearings. But instead of publishing the reports and photos itself, it sells them to other news organisations to use.

AAP is Australian democracy's safety net - its closure will affect us all | Margaret Simons Read more

These other organisations pay a subscription for the service. In return, they can put copy and photos from a wire agency like AAP in their paper, upload it online or read it out on radio. AAP is the only Australian wire service that offers general Australian news. It has more than 200 subscribers, including essentially every major newspaper, TV station and radio station in Australia. Most organisations rely on other wire agencies for foreign news – these include Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press – and individual newspapers have syndication deals with the likes of Bloomberg or the Washington Post.

As the Melbourne AAP journalist Karen Sweeney tweeted out, on Monday AAP’s top 10 news stories were republished 2,514 times in a single day around Australia.

Karen Sweeney (@karenlsweeney) AAP's numbers yesterday -

Our top 10 sport stories were published 1595 times.

Our top 10 news stories were published 2514 times.



That's 4109 blank spaces on websites and newspapers, dead air on radio that would need to be filled without us.

And one breaking report about Ellyse Perry being injured – and ruled out of the World Cup – was used 410 times.

Scott Bailey (@ScottBaileyAAP) The @AAPNewswire story on Ellyse Perry's injury by @ollycaffrey yesterday was published 410 times.

You have read thousands of AAP stories, even if you don’t know it.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest AAP staff react during Tuesday’s announcement. Photograph: Steven Saphore/EPA

How do wires agencies work?

AAP creates more than 500 stories, 750 images and 20 pieces of video each day, and uploads it to a rolling page known as the Newswire. Editors and producers choose which stories to run from that long list, which gets uploaded and updated constantly throughout the day.

Sometimes the stories will be credited – Guardian Australia usually will give it the general byline “Australian Associated Press” or, if Guardian staff have written new material into an existing wires report, the byline will say “Staff and agencies”. Other newspapers will use the individual reporters’ name.

You might not realise that Tracy Ferrier, for instance, is not a Daily Telegraph employee but a reporter from AAP. Other times a story will just say “SBS News” with “Source: AAP” at the bottom.

AAP’s coverage is determined by its own editors, just like any other newsroom; they don’t take directives from subscribers but other newsrooms are often in contact with them about what they will be covering that day. Their focus is on comprehensive, general coverage. That has been AAP’s aim since it was established in 1935 by 13 newspaper competitors, who agreed they needed a central, reliable news source they could share for the day-to-day news.

These days AAP excels at court reporting, regional news and sport. Its reporters will sit in on every day of a murder trial or the aged care royal commission. They will attend every state MP press conference, to make sure a reporter is there to get every statement and political backflip on the public record.

Megan Neil (@meganneiljourno) AAP has covered every single hearing day of every national royal commission in recent years: child abuse, banking, aged care and disability. We don't get the credit we deserve. @AAPNewswire #saveAAP

During the bushfires, for example, AAP published a daily update tracking the number of people who had been killed in each state – making sure every newspaper was getting its facts right.

The Guardian published a gallery of highlights from AAP photographers yesterday. How will news photography be affected?

A look back at some of AAP's best photographs – in pictures Read more

Massively. Online news outlets around the country have a tremendous reliance on AAP pictures.

According to its 2018 submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, AAP produces more than 750 Australian news photos and 3,000 international photos a day. These have increasingly plugged the gap as organisations reduce in-house photographers.

In 2017 News Corp made the majority of its photographers redundant, saying it would use more freelancers and agencies like AAP instead.

Other photo agencies exist, such as Getty Images, but AAP is the only wire service that caters specifically to daily news – rather than just sport, entertainment or stock images. AAP photographers are the ones in court or at press conferences, day-in-day out.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Journalists, photographers and staff from Nine hold signs in support of AAP outside Nine’s offices in Sydney on Tuesday. Photograph: Joel Carrett/EPA

What will it mean for Australian journalism?

The existence of a wires agency lets an individual newsroom better prioritise its resources and devote more time to in-depth journalism, features, comment and more. The closure of AAP will add significant pressure to all the news organisations who subscribe to it.

Photographers and videographers will have less time to create beautiful feature photos and time-intensive documentaries if they have to cover every court date and MP press conference.

On top of that, Australia has already has one of the most concentrated media landscapes in the world. The loss of AAP will further concentrate the journalism you read in the hands of the few – and it will be a brutal hit to already struggling regional media.



