PRESS ASSOCIATIONS. Associations of newt‘papers or news agencies for the gathering and dissemination of news were unknown prior to 1849. Hitherto it had been entirely a matter of individual enterprise, but in that year. as a direct result of the rapid development of the tele graph, and steam transportation both on sea and on land, almost simultaneously the business of newsgathering through associated effort or special news agencies was both in Europe and the United States. In Europe the initia tion of the service was due to Baron Julius Reuter, a Prussian, who during 1848 had been ex perimenting with schemes for facilitating the transmission of news on the Continent. In 1849 he appeared in London and attempted to inter est various daily newspapers in a plan for in creasing the scope and efficiency of their foreign Dews service by acting in combination. His project was not favorably received at first, but one by one the great London dailies came to rec ognize the value of the new service, and although for the first ten years the more conservative con fined their patronage to the department of finan cial news, a succession of lucky strokes in sup plying early accounts of great political events at length won for the Renter agency a world-wide recognition as the greatest existing factor in the gathering of international news. It maintains correspondents in every part of the world, and by a coiiperative arrangement with the Associated Press in America its service is greatly extended. In England the exclusive distribution of all the Renter telegrams to the provincial papers in the United Kingdom is in the hands of an organiza tion in London known as the Press Association. This organization was formed in 1868, when the British telegraph lines were by act of Parliament taken over by the Government. It is a co operative corporation, formed and controlled by the provincial papers, maintains an office with manager, editors. and correspondents in London, and has representatives in every town in the United Kingdom. Other British news associa tions include the Central News Agency. organized on the same lines as the Press Association save that it has foreign correspondents. the National Press Agency and the Exchange Company.
In the United States the first move toward associated effort in gathering news was made in 1847 in the formation of the Associated Press of New York, an organization of daily papers to reduce useless competition. This organiza tion, finally launched in 1849, was the fore runner of all other similar associations in Ameri ca. It extended its activities and scope rapidly, and as other news gathering agencies were formed throughout the country, it made such arrangements with them as practically to control the collection and distribution of news in the entire country. The monopoly enjoyed by the old Associated Press, which had practically ab sorbed an organization known as the Western Associated Press, lasted for many years. The re fusal of the association to admit a paper to mem bership became almost a prohibition upon publi cation, and the withdrawal of a franchise proved likewise disastrous. Dissensions finally arose within the organization, and after several com peting associations had been formed ani failed, the United Press was finally successfully launched in 1882. The original Associated Pre:, finally dissolved, and the greater part of the large metropolitan dailies joined the new organi zation. A rival to the United Press, however. soon appeared in the field in the new Associated Press, organized in Illinois on a mutual plan by Southern and Western papers. Subsequently, as a result of dissensions, the United Press dis solved, most of the New York members joining the Associated Press. In 1900 the Associated Press underwent a reorganization and was rein corporated in New York as a result of a decision of the Illinois courts in a suit brought to compel it to furnish news to other than association mem bers. There are in the United States numerous local Associated Press organizations, such as the New York City News Association, practically a branch of the Associated Press. and also numer ous agencies for the dissemination of special sorts of new-, such as financial, market, or agri cultural. Other agencies having a more or less national service are the Laffan Bureau, organized by the New York Sun on the break-up of the United Press, and the Scripps-McRae Syndicate.