After 85 Years, Australia's Newswire AAP to Down Shutters

Melbourne: After 85 years of service, Australia's national newswire Australian Associated Press (AAP) on Tuesday announced its closure, citing increasing free online content making the business unviable.

The newswire will draw the curtains at the end of June, while its subediting business, Pagemasters, will close at the end of August, the company's website said on Tuesday.

At least 180 jobs will be axed due to its closure.

AAP Chief Executive Bruce Davidson said it had been an "extremely difficult decision" to shut AAP, including the newswire service and sub-editing service Pagemasters.

He said the business was no longer viable in the face of increasing free online content.

However, some of the staff could be redeployed to News Corp and Nine news channel.

AAP chairman Campbell Reid described the newswire as Australian "journalism's first responder".

"It is a great loss that professional and researched information provided by AAP is being substituted with the un-researched and often inaccurate information that masquerades as real news on the digital platforms," Reid said.

Premier of Victoria state Daniel Andrews said the closure of the newswire company would hurt media diversity.

"My view has always been that we need more voices in our public conversation, not less, and AAP for many, many years has provided a vital link to information that people need," he said.

The newswire has supplied articles to regional, national and global newspapers, broadcast outlets and digital editions in various forms since 1935 and the business will make its final transmission on June 26, according to the information on AAP's website.

Describing his team as "the most humble and hardest news people", Editor-in-Chief Tony Gillies said, “We have had a place like no other in journalism. We exist for the public's interest and I now fear for the void left by the absence of AAP's strong, well-considered voice.”

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance described the closure as “a gross abandonment of responsibility by shareholders” and blamed the government in failing to effectively deal with digital content aggregators, search engines and social media, which has made news readily available for free online.

“You will leave a massive void in terms of information coverage,” Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese told the chamber after naming each of the press gallery's AAP journalists.

“Democracy should not be taken for granted … the Australian public will be less informed as a result of the decision today which is a great tragedy,” Albanese said.

Over the years, AAP has been providing a wide-range of media solutions through its divisions – Newswire, Pagemasters, AAP Studio, Medianet, Mediaverse and MegaForm.