In this interview by the Online Journalism Review’s Sandeep Junnarkar of Ted Anthony, the founding editor of AP‘s new asap multimedia news portal, Anthony talks about how the new portal was staffed and the importance of visual communicators to the entire process. “I have always believed that the visual specialists in the newsroom are as pivotal and as insightful if not more so than the word specialists,” Anthony said.

Reconceiving storytelling at the Associated Press
Q&A: Ted Anthony talks to OJR about how the AP is trying, through its asap portal, to meet the needs of readers who want to access information in different ways.
By Sandeep Junnarkar

Ted Anthony has played many roles for The Associated Press, from national correspondent to China news editor. Most recently in 2005, the AP tapped him to be the founding editor of asap, its multimedia news portal.

We were looking for people who were flexible in their storytelling–and by that I mean people who wouldn’t say, we don’t do things that way. Too many news organizations in today’s world are populated with many people who say, we don’t do things that way. Those people are not going to be doing things at all if they keep up that attitude. We have to be willing to acknowledge that there is a certain core group of values and skills that we have, but that beyond that we are in this brave new world and we have to be able to think critically about how a story should be told and whether a story will resonate, will echo if it’s told in the best way. I really was aiming to hire people who are willing to say, “okay, we will not be bound by convention.” -more