AP distributing stories from nonprofit groups

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, Summer 2009

The Associated Press began a six-month pilot project July 1 to distribute watchdog and investigative journalism from nonprofit organizations to its 1,500 member newspapers. The AP announced the initiative during IRE's annual conference in June in Baltimore.

The AP will distribute work by the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop and ProPublica.

The journalism organizations will receive a wider distribution of their content. It will be provided via the AP's Web-based delivery system, AP Exchange, at no cost to the newspapers or to the contributing organizations.

"We're seeing exciting growth in foundation-supported and other nonprofit journalism organizations that are producing public service journalism, which is at the heart of AP's news values," said Sue Cross, senior vice president, Global New Media & U.S. Media Markets, in a news release.

If the project is extended, other nonprofit journalism organizations also may be included.

Comprehensive numbers are elusive, but it is clear that increasingly foundations are funding news, the AP said in a news release. Of the 1 15 news ventures that received funding in the past four years cited by J-Lab at American University in its recent report, 1 02 - or 87 percent - launched since 2005.