Moses Yale Beach (January 7, 1800 – July 18, 1868) was an American inventor, entrepreneur, philantropist and publisher, who started the Associated Press, and is credited with originating print syndication. His fortune, as of 1846, amounted to $300,000, which was about 1/4 of the fortune of Cornelius Vanderbilt at the time, and was featured in a book that he published named the Wealthy citizens of the City of New York. His newspaper, the New York Sun, the most successful newspaper in America, became the first penny press in the United States, and was a pioneer on crime reporting and human-interest stories for the masses.