Associated Press Reduces Coverage of Off Broadway, Dance & Opera

According to NPR, earlier this week, the Associated Press began to reduce regular coverage of Opera, Dance, and off Broadway- coverage that is carried by hundreds of print outlets around the world. Chief theater writer Mark Kennedy told NPR: "We sent out a survey before the Tonys to the members of our cooperative, asking about their use of our reviews. While music, books, movies and TV came back positive, the results proved what we have long suspected: Members overwhelmingly are not using our opera, dance or off-Broadway reviews."

He continued: "It's more than that. In some cases, they actually resent [that coverage], thinking we can use our resources better. So while we of course will dip into the world of off-Broadway, whether for an occasional review or a story, we have to listen to the people who pay our bills."

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The Associated Press is a multinational non-profit news agency based in New York City. The AP is a nonprofit cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers,radio, and television stations in the United States, all of which contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists. The AP staff is represented by the Newspaper Guild union, which operates under the Communication Workers union, which operates under the AFL-CIO. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, paying a fee to use AP material without being contributing members of the cooperative.

As of 2005, the news collected by the AP is published and republished by more than 1,700 newspapers, in addition to more than 5,001 television and radiobroadcasters. The photograph library of the AP consists of over 10 million images. The Associated Press operates 243 news bureaus, and it serves at least 120 countries, with an international staff located worldwide.