The launch of a challenger to the Associated Press wire service will soon alter the news media landscape.
“The Associated News Service (ANS) is a groundbreaking initiative that provides a simple content-sharing agreement among conservative news outlets and independent journalists. Built on collaboration, integrity, and shared values, ANS offers a trusted alternative to the legacy media,” the press release for the organization reads.
Roy Maynard, resource editor and founder of ANS, has called the Associated Press (AP) a barrier to truthful reporting.
The “AP has become something else. It’s a gatekeeper and an enforcer of a particular political agenda. Just look at the AP Stylebook, which is seen as the Bible of Journalism. In reality, it’s used to control narratives and to delegitimize great swaths of the American public,” Maynard said. “The ANS will not go down that path. We remain committed to honest, objective journalism.”
The AP style guide has become a point of contention in recent years as it has adopted woke gender ideology and directed outlets to use a person’s preferred gender identity pronouns or to avoid the issue entirely.
During the turmoil surrounding the 2020 COVID pandemic, the AP contributed to misleading news stories that gave the impression that then-Colleyville City Councilwoman Tammy Nakamura was holding a “confederate flag” at an event as Black Lives Matter protests swept the nation, The Dallas Express reported.
Maynard said the AP did not always have a leftist agenda, adding that the AP’s model once proved useful in a cash-strapped media environment.
“The Associated Press model has always made sense, from its very beginnings, when New York City papers pooled resources to send a reporter to cover the Mexican-American War. The content sharing component is a lifeline for smaller publications that sometimes struggle to find material.”
Maynard believes ANS will allow “independent and conservative news outlets” to fill the “gap” where bias in the legacy media has stopped outlets from covering important stories.
“They’re out there doing the hard work of reporting, of holding government officials accountable, and telling the stories of Americans. My hope is that the ANS will be able to come alongside and assist them in their valuable work,” he said.
Maynard has had a long and award-winning career in news, working with outlets such as the Houston Chronicle and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He won First Place in Editorial Writing from the Texas Press Association in 2017 and First Place in Feature Writing from the Texas APME that same year, among other honors.
Maynard promises ANS won’t lecture or lie to readers: “We’ll report the facts and tell the stories. But we won’t tell our readers what to think.”
Numerous new media outlets across the United States have joined the news wire service, including The Dallas Express, The Daily Signal, The Texan, AZ Free News, and numerous others.
DX was part of ANS’s inaugural project in the fall of 2024 that involved sending a contingent of reporters to the southern border to conduct a multi-part series on the border crisis.
The new initiative is backed by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, “a leader in free-market and liberty-driven policy research,” the press release states. “TPPF is dedicated to educating the public and shaping the debate on personal responsibility, economic freedom, and limited government.“
The official launch date for the new wire service is March 1, 2025.