Press Releases

07/20/06

Singleton is named AP's chairman-elect; board votes for no rate increase

NEW YORK (AP) --The board of directors of The Associated Press has elected William Dean Singleton, vice chairman and CEO of the privately held newspaper publisher MediaNews Group Inc., to be its next chairman, the news cooperative announced Thursday.

Singleton becomes vice chairman of the AP immediately and is expected to succeed Burl Osborne, publisher emeritus of The Dallas Morning News, as chairman at the AP's annual meeting next May. Osborne will have completed five years as chairman.

The AP's board also voted to impose no general assessment increase on the basic services for AP newspaper and broadcast members for 2007, the first time since 1971 there will be no increase.

The announcements followed a two-day meeting of the AP's board at its headquarters in New York.

Singleton, 54, was first elected to the AP board in 1999. He founded MediaNews Group, one of the largest privately owned newspaper companies in the United States, in 1983.

"The Associated Press is fortunate to have in Dean another independent leader passionate about the historic role of AP and its journalism as well as the opportunities for the media in the digital era," said Thomas Curley, AP's president and CEO. "Burl has provided marvelous guidance during a CEO transition and in defining the steps AP must take toward becoming an electronic cooperative."

Singleton said in an interview that discussions about strategies for expanding the online operations of newspapers and the AP dominated the two days of board meetings.

"The issues that our newspapers are facing are the same issues that AP is facing _ how we navigate from a print-only world to a print/online world, and how we find ways to monetize our news online," Singleton said.

"While The Associated Press has worked collectively on news coverage since its founding, the newspaper industry hasn't worked collectively because they didn't need to," Singleton said. "They operated in their own local markets with their own local issues. Online takes us beyond geographic boundaries, and for the first time newspapers must work collectively to build the online model to its full potential."

He added that he believes the AP "will be the key to pulling the industry together so that they work collectively."

The zero rate increase for AP members came after a 2.7 percent average annual increase over the past decade, the AP said. However, the board also voted for a 5 percent increase in rates for most non-member customers and also on certain special services and premium products for its member news organizations.

"Looking at the moment within the industry, it seemed like AP should demonstrate its commitment to delivering a quality news product in the most efficient way," Curley said in an interview. "We have some revenue opportunities from other sources that we have been able to make use of and we have some reductions in expenses that will help carry us through next year while still adding to our journalism."

Singleton started out in newspapers at the age of 15 as a part-time reporter in Graham, Texas, his hometown, and purchased his first newspaper at 21. His company, based in Denver, publishes dailies across the country including The Denver Post and The Salt Lake Tribune. He served as chairman of the Newspaper Association of America in 2002.

In April the company reached a deal with McClatchy Co. to buy four former Knight Ridder Inc. newspapers for $1 billion, which will make MediaNews the nation's fourth-largest newspaper company in the country by circulation.

Osborne joined The Dallas Morning News as executive editor in 1980 following a 20-year career with the AP. He later served as president, editor and publisher of the newspaper and also as a director of the paper's parent company, Belo Corp.

As chairman of AP, Osborne oversaw the 2003 selection of Curley, then president and publisher of USA Today, as CEO of the AP, and helped bring the 160-year-old news cooperative into the digital era.

The Associated Press is a not-for-profit cooperative of U.S. newspapers and broadcasters, a global network providing coverage of news, sports, business, entertainment, politics and technology in all media formats to some 15,000 news outlets in more than 120 nations, reaching more than 1 billion people a day.
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