AP Streaming News provides anchored audio news summaries, regularly scheduled video newscasts, sound and video clips for major news stories and live links to selected events on a daily basis for AP's newspaper and broadcast members. All the video and audio packages are produced by APTN and AP Network News.

The news is made to enable newspapers and broadcasters to place multimedia content on their Web sites without a major investment in staff or technology. No special expertise, additional equipment or technical maintenance is required on the part of the host site. AP and RealNetworks do all the work, refreshing content around the clock and alerting each news organization's site by e-mail to post updated links, the firms said.

The new jointly-produced service from AP and RealNetworks gives AP's newspaper and broadcast members easy to use, cost-effective audio and video to enhance their Web sites, said Jim Kennedy, director of AP Multimedia Services.

"The online news market is moving quickly to embrace multimedia presentations that include audio and video, driven by the increasing momentum behind broadband delivery technology and more competition for the online news audience," Kennedy said. "The AP identified that shift early and developed AP Streaming News to help its member newspapers and broadcasters catch the leading edge of this audio-video wave."

USA TODAY, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times were among the member newspapers that participated in the beta testing of AP Streaming News on their Web sites.