The Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) Association began with an informal meeting of newspaper editors gathered in New York City before the 1931 annual Associated Press (AP) meeting. The purpose of this meeting, and a similar gathering held the following year, was to give the editors a chance to compare notes and to air general grievances. The feeling among these editors, assembled from across the country, was that they needed to form a national organization as a way to address problems that they had with the directors of the AP. Led by Roy A. Roberts of the Kansas City Star and Oliver Owen Kuhn of the Washington Star, the editors decided to continue annually holding these editors' gatherings and to make them official. As a result APME's first convention, or annual meeting as it was called then, was held October 26th-29th, 1933 in French Lick, Indiana. Sixty-one editors attended this first official meeting, which Kuhn presided over as general chairman; he also acted as the first chairman of APME.
With each successive convention the organization's scope grew beyond editor/AP relations to eventually encompass other aspects of AP reporting and news dissemination. This interest in improving the AP's service and a desire to expand the dialogue between editors and the AP management beyond the conventions led to the formation of the Continuing Studies committees in 1947. The Continuing Studies committees, each consisting of a group of interested editors, organized to investigate various topics or problems in-depth and subsequently reported their findings back to the rest of APME. The committees regularly shifted their topics from year to year, shaped by changes in news and world events and by the development of new technologies, with only a few basic topics remaining as core areas of research from year to year.
In 1948, a year after the Continuing Studies committees began, APME was incorporated and the Blue Book and the Red Book publications were created to document the convention proceedings and to compile the reports generated by committee research. The members of APME committees were often pioneers in promoting the use of new technologies such as color graphics and satellite transmission methods, as well as the implementation of computers. The organization's own publication, APME News was launched in 1964 and by 1968 APME claimed over 350 members.
As the organization grew in prominence the annual conventions often featured speakers of political or cultural importance. Nelson Rockefeller, Robert Kennedy, Ladybird Johnson, Spiro Agnew, Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon were among some of APME's many distinguished guests. It was at the 1973 convention, to an audience of editors in Miami, that President Nixon stated “I am not a crook.”
In the 1960s the goal of fostering and maintaining good journalistic practices led APME to start an awards program for excellence in news writing and news photography. In 1971 the APME Regents were formed as a way to keep former officers and other prominent long-time members involved in the organization and available to offer their insight to newer members. Also in 1971 the Public Service award and the Freedom of Information award were given for the first time. APME had been a champion of the Freedom of Information Act and the First Amendment and members had fought against both government secrecy and censorship. The Freedom of Information committee was very active on issues such as the balance between freedom of the press and the right to a fair trial as well as the development and implementation of shield laws enabling reporters to protect their sources.
APME also developed a code of ethics for journalists and had an active role in efforts to end discrimination against women and ethnic minorities in the industry. Many of the members of APME cannot point to one particular event in the history of the organization as a critical moment or turning point but instead cite the organization's overall contribution to the betterment of journalism and newspapers as APME's greatest accomplishment. The history of the APME is covered in much more detail in W.F. Cento's book Fifty and Feisty – APME: 1933 to 1983, a copy of which is included in this collection.
