As the news and media industries continue to face disruptive challenges, as unnecessary tariffs on newsprint and aluminum jeopardize the future of many newspapers, and as people in power have trouble understanding the clear language of the First Amendment, The Associated Press (AP) remains committed to its 179 years of journalistic integrity and service to its customers and the wider community.
Its integrity is defined by standing tall for its First Amendment rights against the Trump administration when AP was barred from the White House for refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Having won the suit, AP visual reporters were given access to the White House and all related activities; however, text reporters’ access was limited to rotation in the text pool.
“We won the lawsuit, which was great, and we were gratified by the judge’s decision. Being back in the text pool is critical because we’re representing not just ourselves but thousands of customers worldwide. They rely on us for first-line information. We also want to hold presidents of any party accountable. It's important that we're in the room, and we’ll continue to advocate for that,” said Julie Pace, executive editor at AP.
The Washington Post reported on June 7, 2025, that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 2–1 to stay a lower court’s ruling, temporarily lifting the injunction against the Trump administration. It may now bar AP from some official events. AP is seeking a rehearing of the decision by the full appellate court.
AP’s reputation for innovation can be traced to its origins when, in 1846, New York City newspapers began sharing the cost of gathering news from the Mexican-American War, using telegraph, boat and even carrier pigeons. In 1848, they formalized an agreement to receive international news arriving by ship in Boston, transmitted by telegraph. Today, AP serves thousands of global customers, delivering trusted content that reaches four billion people daily.
AP continues to advance journalism and news reporting with many new programs and initiatives, including AP Newsroom, an AI-powered content delivery platform; the Local Investigative Reporting Program; and AP Forward, a new customer program focused on the future of news. AP announced in June 2024 the creation of the AP Fund for Journalism (APFJ), its charitable sister organization focused on supporting public service journalism and making that reporting accessible to state and local news organizations in the United States.
“In addition to these programs, we’ve made a significant investment in expanding our direct consumer digital business, diversifying our overall revenue. We use our site to conduct more experimentation with digital journalism, which in turn benefits our B2B customers. Our investment also includes live video, vertical and digital video output, interactive content and different types of storytelling aimed at digital audiences,” Pace said.
On a growth trajectory
Despite its size and reach, AP is also affected by the overall challenges the news and media industries have been experiencing. Kristin Heitmann, senior vice president and chief revenue officer, is helping to lead a three-and-a-half-year effort to diversify AP’s revenue. With 75% to 80% of revenue from licensing agreements with its core media customer base, Heitmann and her team are ensuring AP has multi-year contracts with those customers.
To enhance the support of its B2B customers, AP has been building AP News, its consumer-facing news site and app, which was relaunched a couple of years ago. It includes AP’s digital advertising and donations business.
“AP News is not just about revenue diversification for us. It is also a sandbox to test and experiment with different content and formats. If they work for us, then we develop them for our B2B customers. For example, we’ve been experimenting with live blogs on AP News as a new service and product for our B2B customers and testing more social content. We needed further investments in those two areas to augment our product offerings to our B2B customers. We have also invested in our elections business, licensing our election data to media organizations and advocacy groups,” Heitmann said.
A licensing initiative resulted in AP being the first company to strike a deal with Google and one of the first with OpenAI. AP wanted to show that there’s a marketplace for using AI responsibly and to establish the value of its IP.
“We were very intentional in taking a leadership position in AI several years ago, not just to protect our business, but to create some principles in the marketplace for the industry at large. Our content was being stolen and scraped off the internet as it was across the industry,” Heitmann said.
New initiatives for a new era of journalism
AP’s reputation is not based solely on longevity. A constant focus on reinvention and innovation is central to AP’s mission and global leadership. Successfully striking a balance between its core principles and the need for new strategies and initiatives is why the AP brand has endured since 1846.
It is a primary source of programs and learning opportunities to help members sustain their business models, maintain high-quality journalism, drive revenues and be a positive force in their communities.
Local Investigative Reporting Program
The Local Investigative Reporting Program was launched in February 2025, and according to Pace, local news organizations have responded positively. AP recognized that the downsizing of local newsrooms forced them to work in a resource-constrained environment that limited their investigative reporting.
“They found themselves in a position where reporters had great tips, but they didn’t have an editor who could help them push it over the finish line. They might have written an investigative piece but didn’t have a visual staff to help them illustrate their story for a digital audience. We have those resources, and they are tied to our mission to help support local news organizations,” Pace said.
Ron Nixon, a well-respected investigative reporter at AP and previously at The New York Times, leads the Local Investigative Reporting Program team, which includes Justin Pritchard, a veteran investigative reporter and editor.
AP Forward
An even newer customer-facing program, AP Forward, held its first online event on May 20, where Pace and AP’s Associate General Counsel Brian Barrett held a discussion about press freedom. The program invites others in the media and technology industries to join AP staff online and at in-person events throughout the year to collaborate on strategies to overcome their shared challenges. Future AP Forward events are planned to exchange ideas about revenue diversification, the impact of generative AI and other critical issues.
“AP plays a unique role in the media ecosystem. We are the connector of a wide range of members and customers. Everyone is grappling with big issues, and we wanted to create a space for our customers and members to gather and learn from some of our expertise and tap into our resources,” said Pace.
Pace added that these and other conversations have revealed more pressure on freedom of the press at the state and local level.
The AP Fund for Journalism
The Fund is a charitable organization AP started in 2024 “to support public service journalism and make it accessible to state and local news organizations in the U.S.” In April 2025, it launched a pilot program with approximately 50 local nonprofit news organizations to help them increase and improve their coverage of state and local issues that often go unreported.
“The decline of local news is leaving too many Americans without access to reliable information on issues that directly affect their lives,” said Rachel White, CEO of the AP Fund for Journalism. “The APFJ was created to help address that gap by supporting local newsrooms with high-quality, nonpartisan journalism and the tools to make producing, distributing and sustaining that reporting easier. Our goal is to strengthen local journalism and ensure more people have access to the information vital to civic life in the U.S.”
The Google News Initiative is a supporter of the pilot program. It provides each participating newsroom with AP text, video and photo content, editorial tools and training to boost their state and local reporting.
Making technology work better for any newsroom
AP has been a leader in integrating digital technology with traditional reporting for over a decade. Gianluca D’Aniello, senior vice president and chief technology officer, has guided AP through the integration for most of that period. As digital technology continues its headlong flight into the future, D’Aniello and his tech team are proactively developing the application of advanced technologies to support its members and everyone working in the news and media industries.
“When we plug in new technologies, we always want to ensure they serve our legacy, reputation and journalism first. During the past 10 years, we have been good at identifying and experimenting with new technology and introducing them in a way that could be organically adopted and successful,” D’Aniello said.
AP Newsroom is a flagship platform, relaunched during the spring of 2025 for testing, with a complete transition to the platform in July 2025. It features AI-powered search and content recommendations so that users can access AP content from 1895, including text and visuals. Users can customize their home page with specific topics and regional news, search for related photo/video content and receive audio alerts of real-time breaking news.
According to D’Aniello and Heitmann, AP Newsroom was developed with AP customers, so its features reflect their specific needs. They repeatedly heard customers wanted visual content — photos, videos and live video. During its initial phase, a subset of customers provided constant feedback, helping AP to evolve the platform in real time.
“AP Newsroom is a platform that can evolve at the pace we want. It’s a modular, service-based solution. We plan to expand and update some capabilities so our customers can discover our content better. We plan to have a completely revamped search engine in the next year or so. Today, we’re already using natural language processing to do visual searches for photos and videos. In the future, we want an almost seamless search that uses all the available technologies — not just keyword search, metadata search or AI-based search, but blending them all to give our customers the best experience possible. They then can discover the most suitable content for them at that specific moment,” D’Aniello said.
D’Aniello also guides AP in the responsible use of general and generative AI on the AP Newsroom and all applications on AP’s many platforms and services. Having a human in the loop is a base requirement in its generative AI standards. It never provides any content without being reviewed and supervised by a human.
“Our standards don’t prevent us from using AI in general to help our newsroom. For example, we’ve introduced translation services to produce more content in Spanish and Arabic. It’s amazing technology that helps our journalists succeed even more. Whatever the uses of AI or generative AI, we have groups that experiment, but always in alignment with our standards,” D’Aniello added.
Age is only a number
Pace is confident that AP is uniquely positioned to lead the news and media industries through this moment of big transitions because its 179 years of success have been rooted in change, evolution and adaptability.
“That’s exactly the moment in which we find ourselves. It’s why we’ve embraced our role as a digital-first news organization. We’re ensuring we're there for our customers and members as they undergo this transformation. No one knows where the industry will be in the next five years, but you must be adaptable to shift and evolve as audiences change and our customers’ needs change,” Pace said.
Bob Sillick has held many senior positions and served a myriad of clients during his 47 years in marketing and advertising. He has been a freelance/contract content researcher, writer, editor and manager since 2010. He can be reached at bobsillick@gmail.com.
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