Associated Press opening regional desk in Middle East

Associated Press (AP) is creating a regional editing desk in the Middle East as part of an international effort to streamline the flow of news coverage around the world and better respond to the region's increasing importance, the news co-operative announced yesterday. The desk, to be located in Cairo, will be AP's fourth hub outside of the US after its regional desks in London, Mexico City and Bangkok. Its creation coincides with the elimination of its main international desk in New York.

"We are highly committed to covering the region in the most effective way possible, and everybody understands that the Middle East, especially now, is probably the most prodigious generator of news in the world, as a region," said John Daniszewski, the managing editor for international news at AP. "So much of the world's international coverage is of the big stories in the Middle East - the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the current crisis in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran - these are all really important stories and we have put a lot of effort into strengthening our coverage there."

In addition to appointing Sally Buzbee, formerly the chief of news in Cairo, to the title of Middle East editor, AP named Brian Murphy, formerly the assistant international editor in New York, to lead the service's bureau in Dubai Media City. "It's part of a noble effort to change our editorial structure to make it regionally focused and nimble and quick, and to give us better journalism, rather than the historic system where all copy flowed to an editing desk in New York and was distributed from there," Mr Daniszewski said.

He added that while the new system was more efficient than the old one, few jobs would be lost because much of the talent formerly working on the New York international desk was being distributed to the regional editing desks around the world. Ms Buzbee will oversee AP bureau chiefs in Cairo, Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Iran, the Gulf and Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and other countries across region, including Syria and Sudan. The regional desk would consist of about a dozen people, Mr Daniszewski said.

Later this year, AP plans to break out a separate Cairo bureau to cover news in Egypt, which will also report to the regional editor. Mr Daniszewski said the decision to place the regional hub in Cairo was partly geographic and partly economic. "We feel that Cairo is more central to the region." Although AP recently added a business bureau in Dubai and plans to increase its coverage of the Gulf, he said the UAE was not considered as a regional hub.

"Dubai is not an inexpensive city," he said. "The AP is a very lean operation." [e-mail]