Standards for working with outside groups

France D-Day

Working with the right organizations

The Associated Press recognizes that working with the right organizations can help our newsroom fulfill our goals as journalists. This may be a foundation that offers funding to support expanded coverage, or another media outlet with expertise that complements ours.

AP seeks to work with organizations that support its mission of objective newsgathering and accountability in the following ways:

  • Impactful reporting

    Helping AP to develop additional capacity or expertise to better carry out impactful reporting.

  • Developing new skills

    Aiding AP journalists in developing new skills and storytelling techniques suited to new ways of gathering, showing and sharing the news.

  • Deliver news faster

    Supporting software, design or engineering innovation to deliver news faster or more efficiently.

  • Developing tools

    Developing tools to help AP and the news industry better adapt to the rapidly changing digital world.

Standards review

Any newsroom partner, whether a foundation or another news organization, must align with AP News Values and Principles.

In general, AP seeks as collaborators:

  • Objective journalism

    Media outlets that practice fact-based, objective journalism.

  • Diversity of projects

    Broad-based organizations such as universities and foundations created for the public good that fund a diversity of projects in many fields.

  • Spreading knowledge

    Organizations committed to spreading general knowledge in a broad field, such as medicine or science.

  • Institutional accountability

    Organizations that believe in government and institutional accountability, freedom of information and opposition to censorship.

A core partnership principle is that AP’s journalism will be independent.

  • Influencing coverage

    We will not accept any grant that requires pre-publication review of stories or attempts to influence coverage.

  • Advancing defined news goals

    We will favor grants with a clear purpose of advancing defined news goals or areas of coverage.

  • Abstain from conversations

    We will abstain from conversations with a potential funder about specific conclusions or outcomes that will be derived from the proposed reporting.

  • Transparency

    We will aim for the highest practicable degree of transparency regarding editorial, donor and business standards and operations, including acceptance of outside funds.

Turkey Syria

To see AP’s current and past philanthropic supporters and news collaborators

Click here
Contact us