Press Releases

09/17/2008

AP awards Chairman's Prize to Mobile News team

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Associated Press awarded its 2008 Chairman's Prize on Wednesday to a team of AP employees responsible for developing a service that makes news stories available on Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other mobile devices.

The service delivers local news from participating member newspapers and national and international news from AP. Reports are organized by ZIP code.

The AP and more than 100 of its member newspapers launched the service in May, and participation now exceeds 725 newspapers. It is the first example of the Digital Cooperative, a program for finding new digital outlets for content produced by AP members.

"The assignment the team received was daunting: Move quickly to develop a product that will deliver news from AP and its members to smart phones as a first step toward opening the cooperative to new revenue opportunities in the digital world," AP President and CEO Tom Curley said in a statement.

The prize, which carries a monetary reward to be revealed in October, will be shared by Jeff Litvack, global director for new media markets, Global Product Development; Ben Mosse, deputy director, business planning, Digital Business Development; Anne Park, research analyst, Digital Business Development; Richard Brett, software architect, Technology; and Paul Caluori, director of client content services, Client Content Services.

AP created the award in 2004 to encourage innovation among its staff.

The prize is named for the chairman of the AP, MediaNews Group Inc. CEO William Dean Singleton, as well as past chairs Frank Batten, Frank Daniels, William Keating, Donald Newhouse and Burl Osborne. They selected the winner from recommendations made by a committee of AP managers.

Founded in 1846, The Associated Press is the world's largest newsgathering organization.