As a journalism student, journalism instructor and newspaper editor/reporter (and later as an agency publications editor), I adhered to the Associated Press rule about not using "hopefully" to mean "it is hoped," "let us hope" or "we hope," typically at the beginning of a sentence.
But I'm pleased AP has finally changed that rule, not only because "hopefully" is so commonly used that way but also because it's grammatically correct to use it that way. Other similar adverbs are also used, correctly, to modify the meaning of a sentence and not just certain words in a sentence. "Hopefully" is one of those adverbs.
Here's the current hopefully entry in my online editorial style manual. I'm going to be revising it--that is, updating it--to reflect reality. (By the time you read this, I may have already updated my manual.)
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