ANPA-1312
Encyclopedia
ANPA-1312 is a 7-bit news agency
text markup
specification published by the Newspaper Association of America
, designed to standardize the content and structure of text news articles.
It was last modified in 1989 and is still the most common method of transmitting news to newspapers, web sites and broadcasters from news agencies in North and South America. Although the specification provides for 1200 bit-per-second
transmission speeds, modern transmission technology removes any speed limitations.
Using fixed metadata
fields and a series of control and other special characters, ANPA 1312 was designed to feed text stories to both teleprinters and computer-based news editing systems.
Although the specification was based upon the 7-bit ASCII character set, some characters were declared to be replaced by traditional newspaper characters, e.g. small fractions and typesetting
code. As such, it was a bridge between older typesetting methods, newspaper traditions and newer technology.
Perhaps the best known part of ANPA-1312 was the category code system, which allowed articles to be categorized by a single letter. For example, sports articles were assigned category S, and articles about politics were assigned P. Many newspapers found the system convenient and sorted both incoming news agency
and staff articles by ANPA-1312 categories.
Superseded in the early 1990s by IPTC Information Interchange Model
and later by the XML-based News Industry Text Format, ANPA-1312's popularity in North America remains strong due, in part, to its widespread support by The Associated Press and the reluctance of newspapers to invest in new computers or software modifications.
A modified version — but with the same name — was implemented by several news agencies after the vendor of some early computer systems modified the specification for its own purposes.
An international standard, IPTC 7901
, is widely used in Europe and is closely related to ANPA-1312.
News agency
A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. Such an agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire or news service.-History:The oldest news agency is Agence...
text markup
Markup language
A markup language is a modern system for annotating a text in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from that text. The idea and terminology evolved from the "marking up" of manuscripts, i.e. the revision instructions by editors, traditionally written with a blue pencil on authors' manuscripts...
specification published by the Newspaper Association of America
Newspaper Association of America
The Newspaper Association of America is a trade association representing approximately 2000 newspapers in the United States and Canada. Member newspapers represented by the NAA include large daily papers, non-daily and small-market publications, as well as digital and multiplatform...
, designed to standardize the content and structure of text news articles.
It was last modified in 1989 and is still the most common method of transmitting news to newspapers, web sites and broadcasters from news agencies in North and South America. Although the specification provides for 1200 bit-per-second
Bit rate
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....
transmission speeds, modern transmission technology removes any speed limitations.
Using fixed metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
fields and a series of control and other special characters, ANPA 1312 was designed to feed text stories to both teleprinters and computer-based news editing systems.
Although the specification was based upon the 7-bit ASCII character set, some characters were declared to be replaced by traditional newspaper characters, e.g. small fractions and typesetting
Typesetting
Typesetting is the composition of text by means of types.Typesetting requires the prior process of designing a font and storing it in some manner...
code. As such, it was a bridge between older typesetting methods, newspaper traditions and newer technology.
Perhaps the best known part of ANPA-1312 was the category code system, which allowed articles to be categorized by a single letter. For example, sports articles were assigned category S, and articles about politics were assigned P. Many newspapers found the system convenient and sorted both incoming news agency
News agency
A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. Such an agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire or news service.-History:The oldest news agency is Agence...
and staff articles by ANPA-1312 categories.
Superseded in the early 1990s by IPTC Information Interchange Model
IPTC Information Interchange Model
The Information Interchange Model is a file structure and set of metadata attributes that can be applied to text, images and other media types...
and later by the XML-based News Industry Text Format, ANPA-1312's popularity in North America remains strong due, in part, to its widespread support by The Associated Press and the reluctance of newspapers to invest in new computers or software modifications.
A modified version — but with the same name — was implemented by several news agencies after the vendor of some early computer systems modified the specification for its own purposes.
An international standard, IPTC 7901
IPTC 7901
IPTC 7901 is a news service text markup specification published by the International Press Telecommunications Council that was designed to standardize the content and structure of text news articles...
, is widely used in Europe and is closely related to ANPA-1312.