`The A.P. News Trust's Special Influence: A 1990s Look At The Associated Press--Part 3

(The following article originally appeared in the July 7, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown. )

In the 1990s, among the Big Media representatives who sat next to each other on the A.P. board of directors to discuss how A.P. could best serve as a tool of their supposedly competing Big Media enterprises were the following super-rich people:

New York Times Company Director and Chattanooga Times Publisher Ruth Sulzberger Holberg;

Newhouse Media Conglomerate Advance Publications/Newark Star-Ledger/Parade magazine/Vogue/Conde’ Nast/New Yorker Owner Donald Newhouse;

Times-Mirror/Newsday Vice-Chairman and Los Angeles Times Publisher W.Thomas Johnson;

Knight-Ridder/Philadelphia Inquirer Chairman of the Board James Batten;

Cincinnati Enquirer Chairman of the Board and Fifth Third Bancorp director William Keating;

WJTV Broadcasters of Mississippi Chairman and United Missouri Bancorp Director David Bradley;

Providence Journal President and Director Stephen Hamblett; and

Hibernia Corp./Hibernia National Bank of New Orleans and South Central Bell-Birmingham Director Joe Dorsey Smith. Jr.

[In 2007, the A.P. board of directors now includes the following wealthy folks:

MediaNews Group Vice-Chairman and CEO William Dean Singleton;

McClatchy Company Chairman, President and CEO Gary Pruitt;

Chicago Tribune Company Chairman, President and CEO Dennis FitzSimons;

Hearst Corporation President and CEO Victor Ganzi;

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Publisher Walter Hussman Jr.;

New York Times Regional Media Group President and CEO Mary Jacobus;

Washington Post Publisher and CEO “Bo” Jones;

Lee Enterprises Inc. President and CEO Mary Junck;

E.W. Scripps Company President and CEO Kenneth Lowe;

Gannett Company Retired Chairman Douglas McCorkindale;

Newhouse Media Conglomerate/AdvanceNet Chairman Steven Newhouse;

ABC News President David Westin; and

Cox Newspapers President Jay Smith. ]

Although the Washington Post-Los Angeles Times News Service and the New York Times Service were supposedly set up to compete with A.P. for media outlet subscribers and readers, representatives of the parent companies of both the Washington Post-Los Angeles Times News Service and the New York Times Service also sit on the A.P. board of directors, ironically. And, coincidentally, neither the Washington Post-Los Angeles Times News Service nor the New York Times Service has apparently been too eager to provide their subscribers with news that is too critical of the A.P. News Trust’s special influence. (end of part 3)

(Downtown 7/7/93)

Next: The A.P. News Trust’s Special Influence: A 1990s Look At The Associated Press—Part 4