AP Fund for Journalism expands election resources to 200 local newsrooms nationwide

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The AP Fund for Journalism (APFJ) today announced it is providing 200 local and state newsrooms across the United States with election coverage and resources from The Associated Press through the end of 2026, with support from Google, Knight Foundation, Microsoft, Lilly Endowment, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and several individual philanthropists.

The support is enabling APFJ to significantly expand efforts to strengthen local journalism and ensure that news organizations serving communities across the country have access to reliable, nonpartisan information during the midterm elections.

With this generous support, APFJ will provide participating newsrooms with AP journalism and resources designed to complement their own reporting and help them deliver timely, authoritative election coverage and information to their communities.

Resources will include AP coverage focused on politics, government and elections, as well as AP’s authoritative U.S. election results, including comprehensive vote tabulations, race calls and state-specific maps and graphics. Newsrooms will also have access to reporting resources that provide data, context and ideas for localizing national and state developments for their audiences.

“Local newsrooms are closest to the communities they serve, but many are being asked to cover increasingly consequential elections with fewer resources,” said Rachel White, CEO of AP Fund for Journalism. “By giving newsrooms access to AP’s trusted vote count, race calls and reporting, we can help them provide their audiences with information about the election while allowing their own journalists to devote more time and resources to the candidates, issues and stories that matter most to their communities.”

The support builds on APFJ’s mission to ensure all communities have access to trusted news and information through strengthened local newsrooms that produce and deliver it.

Newsrooms participating in APFJ-supported election initiatives have already put these resources to work during this year’s primary elections.

“As a small newsroom, APFJ’s election support has been critical to our election coverage,” said Katie Thoreson, news director of WXPR, a public radio station in Northern Wisconsin. “Being able to use AP graphics, results and stories for national and state election reporting allows us to spend our time and resources on deepening our local reporting while still delivering comprehensive coverage to our listeners.”

“The Beacon is very grateful for the AP election content. It allows us to share live election results with our Kansas City community in a much easier way than we’d be able to on our own,” said Hilary Becker, COO of The Beacon, a nonprofit news organization serving the Kansas City region. “This content also resonates with our audience. Our live results page for the August primary in Missouri was the fourth most-read page on our site that month.”

The 200 newsrooms supported through the initiative span communities across the United States, including areas with limited local news coverage.

About APFJ

The AP Fund for Journalism was created in 2024 to support public service journalism and make it accessible to state and local news organizations in the U.S. APFJ’s ambition is to underpin and support the U.S. news ecosystem by ensuring news services and widespread access to reliable, nonpartisan and fact-based news and information in underserved issue areas, including but not limited to state and local news. APFJ also supports journalism in topical areas, like health, democracy, education and climate. Online: https://www.apfj.org/

 

About AP

The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. More than half the world’s population sees AP journalism every day. Online: www.ap.org

Contact

For APFJ inquiries:
Victoria Collins
Director of Operations
AP Fund for Journalism
vcollins@apfj.org

For media inquiries:
Nicole Meir
Media Relations Manager
The Associated Press
nmeir@ap.org

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