APB Online Launches Police and Crime Internet Service

Posted on November 17, 1998

APB Online, an Internet news service exclusively covering the whole of the criminal justice system, has launched at http://www.apbonline.com.

"APB will provide the most up-to-date news and information on police and criminal justice issues," says Marshall Davidson, CEO of APB Multimedia. "Our mission is 'To Inform and Serve' -- to provide information that is accurate, responsible, fair and in context. We believe that the more people know about the criminal justice system, the more they will demand of it and the more they will support its improvement. We plan to be the Internet source for police and crime content; like CNET is for technology or SportsLine is for sports."

APB has built a large media organization devoted exclusively to the police and crime genre: 24 journalists, designers and technicians in APB's New York City newsroom, backed by experienced crime writers around the country as contributing editors and correspondents. APB's editorial division -- APB News -- is a national news-gathering operation with a focus exclusively on the whole criminal justice system: which includes headline news, coverage of major cases, interactive profiles of famous unsolved crimes, public policy, crime prevention and personal safety.

"We've assembled some of the finest crime reporters and criminal justice experts in the country," says Mark Sauter, executive vice president, content, for APB Multimedia Inc. "Our reporters are augmented by a cadre of award-winning contributors around the country and a professional advisory board that includes academics, law-enforcement personnel and even a former FBI profiler."

Led by Sauter, an award-winning television and print investigative journalist, and Hoag Levins, former executive editor of Editor & Publisher magazine and its website, the APB News editorial staff includes: Alan Wieder, former deputy editor at Fox News Online; Ed Levine, lead editor on the Bergen Record's (County, N.J.) coverage of police secrecy issues, which won an Associated Press Freedom of Information Award in 1997; and Deborah Baer from The Ladies' Home Journal.