Not only does Dean Singleton (pictured) control 11 paid dailies in the Bay Area but on Monday he took over as chairman of the board of The Associated Press for a five-year term, the AP announced. Singleton’s MediaNews Group didn’t buy the AP. AP is a cooperative that’s owned by its newspaper members. The board consists mostly of newspaper chain CEOs. Knight Ridder’s Tony Ridder of Woodside used to serve on the board. Singleton’s been on the board since 1999. The chief executive of the AP is Tom Curley.

Singleton was elected to the post by the other board members last July. Back in July, he told an AP reporter this about his new post:

The issues that our newspapers are facing are the same issues that AP is facing — how we navigate from a print-only world to a print/online world, and how we find ways to monetize our news online.

While The Associated Press has worked collectively on news coverage since its founding, the newspaper industry hasn’t worked collectively because they didn’t need to. They operated in their own local markets with their own local issues. Online takes us beyond geographic boundaries, and for the first time newspapers must work collectively to build the online model to its full potential.

[The AP] will be the key to pulling the industry together so that they work collectively.