Associated Press launches blog on multimedia news service

Posted by Lindsay Berrigan on April 18, 2007 at 4:59 PM

Yesterday asap, the multimedia news service of the Associated Press, launched an interactive blog focused on the global AP wire.

The blog, “Far and Wide,” will contain text, video, audio, and photos, with entries broken down by topic. Further, it will contain interviews with AP staff covering worldwide news. Asap subscribing newspapers will be able to embed the blog in their sites, where readers will have the opportunity to respond to coverage of breaking news.

At the same time, asap launches two new video segments: “Up Down Left Right,” a weekly video, will focus on video games and will cover gaming issues, news, and reviews, while “Everything Sacred” is a biweekly video about religion and spirituality.

The AP launched asap in 2005 to attract young readers. The service includes podcasts, video, and plenty of sports and entertainment content. According to the AP in Iowa website, about 150 newspapers now subscribe to asap.

“We’re always looking for new ways to deliver the world to asap subscribers,” said asap editor Ted Anthony. “Video, blogs and interactives are three of the most appealing ways to do that online, so we’re refocusing our resources to put those features front and center."