Tom Curley Promotes the e-AP

By: Marc Humbert, Associated Press Writer (AP) Tom Curley, the new president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press, told newspaper publishers he was leading an effort to transform the news service to meet the challenges of the electronic age while maintaining the AP's core values.

Speaking Tuesday to the 82nd annual meeting of the New York Newspaper Publishers Association, Curley told the industry executives about "eAP" or "the electronic AP."

"We are transforming the AP from a wire service, which we've been for 150 years ... to an interactive database and news network that connects us, and not just connects us technically, but more importantly connects our common business and journalistic goals," said the former president and publisher of USA Today.

But Curley promised that in remaking the AP, "the culture of The Associated Press is secure. There will be no attacking of it at all."

He said the news service is made up of "the greatest journalists you'll ever meet." But the AP must make those journalists more productive because, in an era of declining newspaper circulation and hard economic times, "it's tough to imagine there will be more slots" opening to expand the AP staff, he said.

Curley said that to increase revenues, the AP must expand its foreign presence, photo services, and revenue from the Internet, while increasing anti-piracy protection from those who would use AP's product without paying for it.

"Future growth depends on repositioning AP for serving international markets and news and information audiences," he said.

Curley said the news service would be offering member newspapers tools for customizing how they use AP products and greater access to prepackaged news pages covering everything from sports agate to financial news.

He also said the AP is looking at ways to market photos and news from member newspapers to foreign outlets and other buyers.

Curley said AP's news operations -- from print to broadcast to broadband -- would be merged into a single unit that could deliver a multimedia product.

"We see eAP as a giant leap forward," he said.

The AP is the world's largest news gathering organization with 3,700 employees serving 121 countries.