Founded in 1846 as a pony express news cooperative to ferry dispatches from the Mexican-American War, the Associated Press is often referred to as the “marine corp of journalist” for being the first in and last out during historical events ranging from the fall of Saigon to Pearl Harbor. AP operates as an independent, not-for-profit cooperative, owned and funded entirely by its member news organizations that syndicate AP content. With 2,000 stories produced each day across 263 locations throughout the globe, AP content reaches roughly half the world’s population every day. The Associated Press (AP) is a U.S.-based not-for-profit news agency based in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. The AP is owned by its contributing newspapers and radio and television stations in the United States, all of which contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists. AP's mission is to inform the world with accurate, fair, unbiased reporting. AP has earned 52 Pulitzer Prizes, including 31 for photography, since the award was established in 1917. AP has counted the vote in U.S. elections since 1848, including national, state and local races down to the legislative level in all 50 states, along with key ballot measures. AP collects and verifies returns in every county, parish, city and town across the U.S., and declares winners in over 5,000 contests. As of 2016, news collected by the AP was published and republished by more than 1,300 newspapers and broadcasters. The AP operates 263 news bureaus in 106 countries. It also operates the AP Radio Network, which provides newscasts twice hourly for broadcast and satellite radio and television stations. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, paying a fee to use AP material without being contributing members of the cooperative. As part of their cooperative agreement with the AP, most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the AP to distribute their local news reports. The AP employs the "inverted pyramid" formula for writing which enables the news outlets to edit a story to fit its available publication area without losing the story's essentials. Cutbacks at rival United Press International in 1993 left the AP as the United States' primary news service, although UPI still produces and distributes stories and photos daily. Other English-language news services, such as the BBC, Reuters and the English-language service of Agence France-Presse, are based outside the United States.