{{Infobox Co-operative
| company_name     = ''The Associated Press''
| company_logo     = Image:Associated Press logo.png
| company_type     = Non-profit cooperative
| foundation       = New York City, 1846<ref name="origin"></ref>
| location         = New York City
| key_people       = CEO
| area_served      = Worldwide
| industry         = News media
| products         = Wire service 
| revenue          =   $654,186,000 USD 2005<ref name="pdf">]</ref>
| operating_income =  $17,959,000 USD 2005<ref name="pdf"/>
| net_income       =  $18,528,000 USD 2005<ref name="pdf"/>
| num_employees    = 3,700
| homepage         = [http://www.ap.org ap.org]       
}}
'''The Associated Press''' ('''AP'''), is a liberal American radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staffers. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, paying a fee to use AP material without being contributive members of the cooperative.

As of 2005, the AP's news is published and republished by more than 1,700 newspapers, in addition to more than 5,000 television and radio broadcasters. The cooperative's photograph library consists of more than 10 million images. It operates 243 news bureaus and serves 121 countries, with a diverse international staff drawing from all over the world. 

As part of their cooperative agreement with the Associated Press, most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the AP to distribute their masthead includes the statement, "''The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and all local news of spontaneous origin published herein.''"

The ''"inverted pyramid formula" for writing that enables news outlets to edit a story to fit its available publication space without losing the story's essential meaning and news information. 

The decline of AP's traditional rival, English-language news services, such as Reuters and the English language service of Agence France-Presse, are based outside the United States.

The explosive growth of asap, a service aimed toward 18- to 34-year-olds. The targeted service was discontinued in October 2007. [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AP_ASAP?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-07-27-18-24-41].

AP's American employees, except for a small group classified by the organization as administrative, are represented by the News Media Guild and the Communication Workers of America.

==History==
The AP was formed in May 1846<ref name="origin" /> by a group of American newspapers that sought to pool resources in order to better collect and report news coming from New York Sun, when he invited other Herald, and the Express. 
* 1849: the Harbor News Association opened the first Halifax, Nova Scotia, to meet ships sailing from Europe before they reached dock in New York.
* 1861: Facing censorship in covering the American Civil War, reporters first filed under the anonymous byline "from the Associated Press agent."
* 1876: Mark Kellogg, a stringer, is the first AP news correspondent to be killed while reporting the news, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. His final dispatch: "I go with (Commander George Armstrong) Custer and will be at the death."
* 1893: Melville E. Stone becomes the general manager of the reorganized AP, a post he holds until 1921. Under his leadership, the AP grows to be one of the world's most prominent news agencies.
* 1899: AP uses telegraph to cover the Sandy Hook, New Jersey, the first news test of the new technology.
* 1914: AP introduces the Teletype, which transmitted directly to printers over telegraph wires. Eventually a worldwide network of 60-word-per-minute Teletype machines is built.
* 1919: Upton Sinclair includes a scathing criticism of the AP in his investigative book on contemporary journalism, ''The Brass Check''.
* 1935: AP initiates Morehouseville, New Year's Day, 1935.
* 1938: AP expands to new offices at 50 Rockefeller Plaza (known as "50 Rock") in the newly built Rockefeller Center in New York City, which would remain its headquarters for 68 years; in 2004 it relocated to larger facilities at 450 W. 33rd St. in Manhattan.
* 1941: AP expands from print to radio broadcast news.
* 1945: AP Edward Kennedy defies an Allied headquarters Nazi Germany’s surrender, touching off a bitter episode that leads to his eventual dismissal by the AP. Kennedy maintains that he reported only what German radio already had broadcast.
* 1994: AP launches APTV, a global video newsgathering agency, headquartered in London.
* 2004: The AP moves its headquarters from 50 Rock to W. 33rd St.
* 2008: Associated Press President and CEO September 11 terror attacks is eclipsing press freedom and other constitutional safeguards in the United States.<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/03/08/911_attacks_harm_first_amendment/ "9/11 attacks harm First Amendment"] ''AP'', 8 March 2008</ref>

==AP Sports Polls==

thumb|250px|The Associated Press Building in [[New York City. (The AP moved from this building in 2004.)]]
The AP is known for its Associated Press polls on numerous college sports in the NCAA Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision) college football and NCAA Division I men's and women's college basketball teams are the most well known. The AP composes the polls by collecting and compiling the top-25 votes of numerous designated sports journalists. The AP poll of college football was particularly notable for many years because it helped determine the ranking of teams at the end of the regular season for the collegiate Bowl Championship Series until the AP, citing conflict of interest, asked for the poll to be removed from the bowl series. Beginning in the 2005 season, the Harris Interactive College Football Poll took the AP's place in the bowl series formula. The AP poll is the longest serving national poll in college football, having begun in 1936.

Each year on 31 March the AP announces the winner of the NCAA Men's basketball "player of the year" (POY) award.

==Associated Press Television News==
In 1994, London-based Associated Press Television (APTV) was founded to provide agency news material to television broadcasters. Other existing providers of such material at the time were Reuters Television and Worldwide Television News (WTN).

In 1998, APTV left the Associated Press building in the Central London and merged with WTN to create Associated Press Television News (APTN) in the existing WTN building in North London.

==Controversies==
=== Jamil Hussein===

Some questions were raised about the legitimacy of police captain Jamil Hussein as a source for AP reporting of sectarian violence in Iraq. On January 4, 2007 the Iraqi Interior Ministry recognized Jamil as an active member of the Baghdad police force, and said he faces arrest for talking to journalists. Ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf, who had previously denied the existence of Hussein, acknowledged that the officer was assigned to the Khadra police station.<ref>[http://www.ap.org/FOI/foi_010407a.html "Iraq threatens arrest of police officer"] ''AP'', 4 January 2007</ref>

=== Christopher Newton ===

The Associated Press fired Washington, D.C. bureau reporter Christopher Newton in September 2002, accusing him of fabricating at least 40 people and organizations since 2000. Some of the nonexistent agencies quoted in his stories included "Education Alliance," the "Institute for Crime and Punishment in Chicago," "Voice for the Disabled," and "People for Civil Rights."<ref>
{{cite news
|url=http://www.slate.com/?id=2073304
|title=Fib Newton
|quote=The Associated Press accused Washington bureau reporter Christopher Newton of journalistic fraud last month and sacked him. The AP alleges that in at least 40 of the many hundred stories Newton wrote for the wire service between January 13, 2000, and September 8, 2002, Newton quoted sources who appear not to exist.
|date=October 29, 2002
|publisher=Slate.com
|accessdate=2008-04-16 }}</ref>

'''Associated Press (AP)''', ABD'li haber ajansı. 

Bu tip şirketler içinde en yaygın ağa sahip haber ajansıdır. AP, ABD başta olmak üzere gazetelere, TV ve radyo istasyonları gibi kuruluşlara kendi personeli tarafından geçilen haberleri servisi yapan bir şirkettir. ABD dışında da pek çok gazeteler, Internet siteleri gibi haber kaynakları AP'ye üyedir ve bu ajansın haberlerini yayınlarında kullanırlar.

right|thumb|AP'nin 2004 yılında ayrıldığı New York'daki eski binası

AP haber ajansı, 1846 yılında New York City'de kurulmuştur. Günümüzde Başkan ve CEO'luğunu Tom Curley yapmaktadır. Ajansın bugün 242 bürosu vardır ve haberlerini 121 farklı ülkedeki abonelerine aktarmaktadır.

Yalnızca 2005 yılında, AP haberlerini tüm Dünya'da 1.700 gazete ve 5.000'in üzerinde TV ve radyo kullanmıştır. Ajansın fotoğraf arşivi 10 Milyon'dan fazla fotoğraf ve resim içermektedir.

Günümüzde AP tarzı haber yazma stili ABD'de standart olarak kabul edilen haber stili olmuştur.

Geçmişten itibaren gelen en büyük rakibi olan United Press International'ın kapanmasından sonra AP, ABD çapında yayın yapan tek ve rakipsiz haber ajansı olarak kaldı. ABD dışında rakipleri ise İngilzce haber servisi yapan Reuters ve Fransız Haber Ajansı Agence France Presse'in İngilizce haber servisidir.