The Associated Press Managing Editors is an association of U.S. and Canadian editors whose newspapers are members of The Associated Press. Since 1933, we have been dedicated to the improvement, advancement and promotion of journalism by our own newspapers and, more recently, our online products, through our relationship with the AP. APME is the key source of information and support for editors who produce vital, interesting newspapers and multimedia sites day in and day out.
The APME Mission
Our elected officers serve as national leaders in speaking out on journalism issues. APME also provides feedback to the worldwide cooperative directly and through the Sounding Board. APME is a nonprofit, tax-exempt association under Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code. Any person who is the editor, executive editor or managing editor, or holds any other title that provides for senior responsibilities for the news, online or editorial staffs of a member newspaper, is eligible for membership. APME is on the front line in setting ethical and journalistic standards for newspapers and in the battle for freedom of information and the First Amendment.
The APME Foundation
The APME Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization established in 1988 to receive tax-exempt gifts to carry out educational projects for the advancement of newspaper journalism. Every year since 1994 an auction has been held at the annual conference to benefit the foundation. Proceeds help support the APME Gazette, the conference newspaper, a highly successful project providing hands-on training opportunities for college journalists, many of them minorities. Other projects supported by the foundation include the APME Fellows Program and journalism education programs at the APME conference.
Statement of Ethical Principles
(Adopted 1994 as revision to APME Code of Ethics)
These principles are a model against which news and editorial staff members can measure their performance. They have been formulated in the belief that newspapers and the people who produce them should adhere to the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct.
The public’s right to know about matters of importance is paramount. The newspaper has a special responsibility as surrogate of its readers to be a vigilant watchdog of their legitimate public interests.
No statement of principles can prescribe decisions governing every situation. Common sense and good judgment are required in applying ethical principles to newspaper realities. As new technologies evolve, these principles can help guide editors to insure the credibility of the news and information they provide. Individual newspapers are encouraged to augment these APME guidelines more specifically to their own situations.
*Responsibility
The good newspaper is fair, accurate, honest, responsible, independent and decent. Truth is its guiding principle.
It avoids practices that would conflict with the ability to report and present news in a fair, accurate and unbiased manner.The newspaper should serve as a constructive critic of all segments of society. It should reasonably reflect, in staffing and coverage, its diverse constituencies. It should vigorously expose wrongdoing, duplicity or misuse of power, public or private. Editorially, it should advocate needed reform and innovation in the public interest. News sources should be disclosed unless there is a clear reason not to do so. When it is necessary to protect the confidentiality of a source, the reason should be explained.
The newspaper should uphold the right of free speech and freedom of the press and should respect the individual’s right to privacy.
The newspaper should fight vigorously for public access to news of government through open meetings and records.
*Accuracy
The newspaper should guard against inaccuracies, carelessness, bias or distortion through emphasis, omission or technological manipulation.It should acknowledge substantive errors and correct them promptly and prominently.
*Integrity
The newspaper should strive for impartial treatment of issues and dispassionate handling of controversial subjects.
It should provide a forum for the exchange of comment and criticism, especially when such comment is opposed to its editorial positions. Editorials and expressions of personal opinion by reporters and editors should be clearly labeled. Advertising should be differentiated from news.
The newspaper should report the news without regard for its own interests, mindful of the need to disclose potential conflicts. It should not give favored news treatment to advertisers or special-interest groups.It should report matters regarding itself or its personnel with the same vigor and candor as it would other institutions or individuals. Concern for community, business or personal interests should not cause the newspaper to distort or misrepresent the facts.
The newspaper should deal honestly with readers and newsmakers. It should keep its promises.The newspaper should not plagiarize words or images.
*Independence
The newspaper and its staff should be free of obligations to news sources and newsmakers. Even the appearance of obligation or conflict of interest should be avoided.
Newspapers should accept nothing of value from news sources or others outside the profession. Gifts and free or reduced-rate travel, entertainment, products and lodging should not be accepted. Expenses in connection with news reporting should be paid by the newspaper. Special favors and special treatment for members of the press should be avoided.
Journalists are encouraged to be involved in their communities, to the extent that such activities do not create conflicts of interest.
Involvement in politics, demonstrations and social causes that would cause a conflict of interest, or the appearance of such conflict, should be avoided.
Work by staff members for the people or institutions they cover also should be avoided.
Financial investments by staff members or other outside business interests that could create the impression of a conflict of interest should be avoided.
Stories should not be written or edited primarily for the purpose of winning awards and prizes. Self-serving journalism contests and awards that reflect unfavorably on the newspaper or the profession should be avoided.
APME History
APME is an association of editors at newspapers in the United States and Canada. It works closely with The Associated Press to foster journalism excellence and to support a national network for the training and development of editors who will run multimedia newsrooms in the 21st Century. The association has held a multi-day conference every year since 1933 in various cities around the U.S. and Canada. Our elected officers serve as national leaders in speaking out on journalism issues. APME also provides feedback to the worldwide cooperative directly and through the Sounding Board. APME is a nonprofit, tax-exempt association under Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code. Any person who is the editor, executive editor or managing editor, or holds any other title that provides for senior responsibilities for the news, online or editorial staffs of a member newspaper, is eligible for membership. APME is on the front line in setting ethical and journalistic standards for newspapers and in the battle for freedom of information and the First Amendment.
APME is Born in a BarBy Bob Haiman
APME Regents
It began in 1930, over a drink in a convention hotel bar.Managing Editors Roy Roberts of the Kansas City Star andOliver Owen Kuhn of the Washington Star were attending theannual meeting in New York that was thencalled Newspaper Week.
Publishers gathered then mostly to talk about ad sales andcirculation, and to complain about newsprint prices and laborcosts. Some of them attended The Associated Press board meetings,which focused mostly on memberships,territories and AP assessments.
Almost nothing was said about journalism or the content ofnewspapers or of the AP wire. Managing editors like Kuhn andRoberts who attended with their publishers got to enjoy somenice cocktail parties and dinners but found it almost impossibleto discuss news coverage or to vent theircomplaints about AP’s news performance.
“I asked Oliver,” Roberts said of the discussion over thatdrink, “why in the world didn’t the managing editors have aninformal conference with AP heads and get their gripes out oftheir systems?” The AP president (Kuhn’s boss) and the AP generalmanager, Kent Cooper, agreed and the first meeting was setto take place the next year, during Newspaper Week 1931.About 30 editors came, along withvirtually all of the AP’s news managers.
It did not go particularly well.There was no formal agenda. After some introductory pleasantries,the editors starting unloading, firing critical questions -most were sharply barbed, derogatory criticisms and some weremore like personal attacks – at the AP executives. It was not acivil discourse. Kuhn later said, “… A certain gentleman from theSouthland and a certain esteemed APeditor almost came to blows.”
There was some question that a second meeting could evenbe held because so many AP managers felt as if they had takenso much unjustified abuse. In effect, what was to eventuallybecome APME almost died for lack of a second.
But tempers cooled and it was decided to hold another meetingin New York in 1932. To avoid a repeat of the hostilities, APeditors and the managing editors began to sketch out a plan:They would meet separately from the publishers and the APboard. Instead of editors just standing up and letting loose,there would be committees of editors looking at the wire report- domestic news, foreign, Washington, state, business, featuresand photos, writing quality, etc. – during the year.
These committees would prepare written reports and present themat the annual meeting. The goal would be to create a useful, professionalscrutiny – cleansed of personal whim, bias and vitriol – to which the APcould react and thus improve its service to member papers.It was time to hold the first true convention.
1931: Editors and AP managers meet for first time, but not successfully.
1932: Similar meeting goes better, at first.
1933: First convention meets in French Lick, Ind.
1941: AP editors criticize newspaper editors, for a change.
1942: Wartime travel restraints mean no convention.
1944-45: War makes travel too difficult for editors to meet.
1946-47: Continuing Studies Committees are started.
1948: APME is incorporated.
1948: Red Book, a report of convention doings, makes debut.
1949: APME receives Distinguished Service Award from Sigma Delta Chi (now Society of Professional Journalists) for “outstanding accomplishment” in journalism research.
1952: 125 editors serve on 14 study committees.
1958: 25th anniversary: APME returns to site of its founding in French Lick, Ind.
1964: APME News debuts, as a newsletter to appear between conventions.
1966: President Johnson signs U.S. Freedom of Information Act.
1967: Personnel Committee for first time has subcommittee titled Negroes in Journalism.
1968: Kerner Commission report issued in wake of urban unrest faults news mediafor ignoring black communities and news.
1969: Black News Committee is created as part of Continuing Studies.
1971: APME at Philadelphia convention presents its first Freedom of Information Awardand its first Public Service Award.
1971: APME Regents is organized.
1972: 374 members, the most ever, sign up for 14 study committees.
1972-82: FOI Committee fights First Amendment battles against courts, legislatures and Congress.
1973: Dorothy Jurney wins election to board of directors at Orlando, Fla.,convention,becoming first woman to sit on the governing board.
1978: Protester in Portland, Ore., hits speaker Howard Jarvis in the face with a pie and runs off.
1979: APME conducts its first major content research study, about sports agate.
1981: APME meets in Toronto for only convention outside United States.
1982: Special ambassador from Mexico falls off speakers’ platform but recoversand wows editors at San Diego convention.
1983: APME board approves study of requirements for, appropriateness of a foundation.
1983: 50th anniversary convention in Louisville, Ky., includes fitness lecture from actress Jane Fonda.
1983: Book “Fifty and Feisty” chronicles the first 50 years.
1983: Editors learn that for the first time, AMs’ circulation exceeds that of PMs.
1984: Editors meeting in Miami learn Louis D. Boccardi will be the next president of The Associated Press.
1986: Editors at Cincinnati convention hear warning that classifieds, the ad foundation of newspaper revenue, are vulnerable to electronic competition.
1988: Former APME president warns colleagues that being covered by the press “can be hell.”
1988: Attendance in Boston tops 650, the last time APME will see such numbers.
1988: Membership in Boston approves creation of a foundation.
1989: APME Foundation receives 501(c)(3) status.
1989: APME presents its first Meritorious Service Award to its longtime FOI champion, Hu Blonk.
1989: Editors learn in Des Moines, Iowa, that newspaper share of local ad dollars has shrunk from 75-80 percent to roughly 50.
1989: APME Gazette is created to cover the conventions and is staffed by area journalism students.
1989: Last Red Book is published as full account of annual convention.
1990: Electronic issues – access to public records and photo ethics – occupy Dallas convention.
1992: Sue Reisinger, first woman president, presides at convention in Honolulu.
1993: APME is warned during Minneapolis convention that the press’s “careless and biased” coverageof Arabs and the Middle East could have serious repercussions.
1993-94: How to stop decline in convention attendance occupies leadership.
1994: Mall of Ideas appears at Philadelphia convention.
1994: APME adopts current Statement of Ethical Principles after two-year effort.
1995: Bob McGruder takes gavel as APME’s first black president at end of Indianapolis convention.
1998: Area journalism students (besides Gazette staff) and their professors are invited to conventionat Disneyland, Anaheim, Calif., as APME creates program to encourage next generation.
1999: APME joins with American Society of Newspaper Editors to create and promote “Time Out for Diversity and Accuracy.”
1999-2000: APME grapples with whether to seek merger with ASNE.
2000: Credibility Roundtables get under way.
2000-01: Online editors are welcomed to conventions.
2001: Associated Press Photo Managers is incorporated.
2001: Planners of Milwaukee conference scheduled for Oct. 10 start over after 9/11 attacks.
2001: Membership votes to designate board seats for online editors.
2002: First online editor is elected to governing board during Baltimore conference.
2002: Robert G. McGruder Diversity Awards presented for first time.
2002: NewsTrain, a national professional development effort, kicks off.
2003: Boccardi retires and his successor, Tom Curley, outlines goals to create digital information powerhouse.
2003: APME hires its first projects director.
2003: International Project offers help on covering local effects of world news.
2003: APME and foundation get first full-time executive director
2004: “Embedded readers,” editors often differ during Louisville convention.
2006: APME meets in New Orleans a year after Hurricane Katrina and honors two top local editors.
2006: Best ideas from Credibility Roundtables published in book, “Building Trust in the News; 101+ Good Ideas for Editors from Editors.”
2007: APME holds first conference in Washington, D.C.
2007: APME presents first Innovator of the Year Award.
2008: APME partners with University of Missouri J School for major survey about credibility of online journalism.
2008: APME partners with Taxpayers for Common Sense, leads national reporting effort on earmarks.
Sources: APME Archives, Robert Giles, Robert Haiman, David Ledford, Mark Mittelstadt, Carol Nunnelley.
