Pounding Brass for the Associated Press: Delivering News by Telegraph in a Pre-Teletype Era

Abstract

The humble origins of the Associated Press as a news cooperative linked by telegraph wires has been well documented, but media historians have avoided a key player in building this news gathering tradition: the press telegrapher. The AP once had an army of fifteen hundred telegraph operators who dispatched news copy to member newspapers in the days preceding the teletype machine. This article provides insight into this all-but-forgotten profession through the recollections of the late Aubrey Keel of Kansas City, Missouri, a former AP telegrapher, who provided a firsthand account of various aspects of press telegraphy, including training, daily routines, professional standards, and the eventual displacement caused by the industry's conversion to teletype technology.