Evening star., 1938-12-18
Associated Press
Offices Moved 10
New Building
Nerve Center Of Huge
News Network Shifted
To Rockefeller Center
Ps the Associated Press.

p, the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Dec. 1.-THE gen.
eral Offices of the Associated Press,
nerve center Of its 285 ,00O-mile net
work of leased news wires, moved
tonight to the new 15-story Asso-
ciated Press Building in Rockefeller
Center.
The change of headquarters-the
third in the A. P.'s modern life-pre-
sented major operation Of
herculean proportions, but service
to its 1850 newspaper members was
not interrupted.
News and wirephotos continued to
move without interruption and all
of the auxiliary services Of the
largest news service in the world
functioned as usual
AS the seventh and latest unit in
the multimillion-dollar skyscraper
group of midtown Fifth avenue, the
A. P. Building epitomizes the motif
Of speed in modern communication.
The new site is four blocks north
and two blocks west from the build
ing at 1888 Madison avenue, where
since 1923 the A. P. has carried on
the gigantic task of collecting and
redistributing news from all over
the world.
Timing Essential.
But distance, in this case, was
secondary to timing
The switchover of an elaborate
maze Of telegraph and telephone
wires, wirephoto equipment, bat
teries OF automatic speed printers,
typewriters, desks and heavily
laden reference files was timed for
completion within nine hours-a
procedure requiring perfect syn
chronization.
In private message to the entire
Associated Press staff respecting the
occupancy of the new building, Kent
Cooper, general manager, said:
The Associated Press Building
to which the New York offices
shortly are to move is monument
to its newspaper members and it's
employees. Through 80 years they
have mutually striven that an accu-
rate, unbiased chronicle of events.
interestingly recorded, be available
to newspaper readers. What
you have aided in accomplishing in
the past must continue into the
future so that BY the Associated
Press shall prevail as long as the
rights OF a free press continue to
make possible an uncensored. un-
lettered collection and dissemina-
ton of truthful news"
Weeks of Preparations,
Weeks of skillfully- planned prepa.
ratlons for the change-over guarded
against any interruption in the event
OF a major news break" with
engineers rigging complete dupn-
cation OF transmitting and receiving
equipment and wires to protect A. p.
member newspapers in every State
IN the Union, in Canada, Cuba.
Mexico and South America.
The general news wires and tho
London cables were to he kept in op-
Grafton at the old Madison Avenue
headquarters until after their new
counterparts were in operation at
Rockefeller Center.
The fourth floor of the new build
ing, comprising $4,000 square feet in
area, will be the future center of
operations for the A. P. Engineers
who installed the labyrinth of wires
called the setup the most compli-
Gated they had ever seen.
In the huge, air-conditioned and
sotnd-proof news room alone, more
than Is miles of wire have been in
stalled to effect the virtually in
stantaneouS transmission Of latest
news bulletins to newspapers across
the Nation.
Five Power Lines.
Power lines in triplicate will guard
against failure, and for the first
time in any building in New York,
the system has been safeguarded
by having all five city power lines
entering the main switchboard.
With this precaution, engineers
pointed out, New York City might
be bombed or swept by fire, flood or
hurricane and the chances would be
almost negligible that all five power
stations would be cut off.
The Associated Press will utilize
he fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh
oors of the new building, with the
fth floor allotted to the foreign
.eWs agencies which exchange news
'ith the A. P.-the japanese Domei,
'rench Havas, British Reuters, off,
cial Soviet Russian Tass and the
Canadian Press, as we'll as the New
York office of La Nacion of Buenos
Aires.
On the fourth, the news" floor,
there will be not only all the wires,
but also the domestic and foreign
news departments, the financial,
sports, Sunday, feature and photo
graphic departments, as we'll as the
library with its thousands upon
thousands of filed stories.
This move was the third in the
long history of the A. P, dating
back to 1848, when news was carried
from incoming ships by carrier
pigeons and courier before the ad-
vent of the telephone, cable, wire
less and radio.
In that year the proprietors of six
New York newspapers, including
James Gordon Bennett of the Her
aid, Horace Greeley of the Tribune
and Beach Brothers of the Sun,
mutually agreed to associate for
the purpose of collecting and receiv-
ing telegraphic and other intelli-
gence"
Christmas Day Broadcast.
The first general agent Of the CO.
operative news association was DR..
Alexander Jones, an experienced
journalist, who had done reporting
on both sides of the Atlantic, and he
set up an office-at a salary Of $40
a week-in drab building at Broad
way and Liberty street. Two as