Adventist News Agency in Europe Celebrates 40 Years of Serving Secular Media
From News Release, December 4, 2014: APD, the Adventist Press Service or Adventistischer Pressedienst in German, celebrates 40 years of serving the secular news media, the ecclesiastical press and other public information institutions, including the print, broadcast and online media. Based in Basel, Switzerland, the agency was founded in 1974 at the initiative of journalist Christian B. Schaeffler.
In 2004 APD was reorganized and repositioned from a German language church press service to a news agency and has become an integral part or the European media world. It delivers the latest news, in-depth reports, commentaries and documentation from the Christian world. In addition to church internal developments, reports on topics such as international development assistance, human rights and religious liberty, church-state relationships and ecumenism are regular themes.
APD utilizes professional journalistic standards of objective and comprehensive reporting. Adventist Today regularly publishes stories from APD.
Although the agency is an integral part of the Adventist communication structure in Switzerland, the agency operates entirely independently of the denomination’s leadership. It provides independent reporting and operates independently of any denominational self-interest.
APD reports are disseminated electronically and also published on the Internet via the Web site www.stanet.ch/apd. It carries stories in English from time to time which are almost always published by Adventist Today.
For some 30 years APD releases have also been published as a monthly summary APD Information (ISSN 1423-9590). In addition to the media, this print edition is sent to archives, libraries, research cent”ers and individual subscribers.
From 1974 to 2003 Schaeffler managed the communication and inter-church relations of the Seventh-day Adventist congregations in the German-speaking region of Switzerland. In this capacity he founded APD. He continued as its director and chief editor until 2010. Schaeffler was also instrumental in setting up the French Adventist Press Service (BIA or Bulletin d’information Adventiste) in 1982 and the APD Germany in 1984. Since 1992, APD Switzerland and APD Germany have worked collaboratively.
“APD is an excellent example of why the ministry of journalism is important to the cause of Christ in the world,” reflected Monte Sahlin, executive director of Adventist Today. “There is a need for more Adventists who are professional journalists to join in similar efforts. The Adventist Today Foundation seeks to facilitate any who are interested in initiating similar projects to APD.”