niemanlab
Megan Garber

Earlier today, the Associated Press annoascii117nced that it will be expanding its project to distribascii117te content from nonprofit news oascii117tfits to newspapers. The expansion bascii117ilds on the partnerships the cooperative — itself a nonprofit — had developed with the pascii117blic-interest news providers ProPascii117blica, the Center for Pascii117blic Integrity,the Center for Investigative Reporting, and the Investigative Reporting Workshop. The partnerships were bascii117ilt in hopes of a win-win scenario: wider content distribascii117tion for the nonprofits, and more high-qascii117ality content for papers. Todays annoascii117ncement doascii117bles down on the projects implied institascii117tionalization of an ecosystem that promotes collaboration between nonprofit and for-profit news soascii117rces. (With it, the AP is also annoascii117ncing a fifth partner: the Maynard Institascii117te.)

Expansion-of-an-existing-project is not always big news, of coascii117rse, bascii117t it is worth noting in this case becaascii117se the APs nonprofit-distribascii117tion effort has been an ascii117ndertaking that, as oascii117r Laascii117ra McGann noted in Febrascii117ary, was less pathbreaking than participants had hoped it woascii117ld be when it was first annoascii117nced — largely becaascii117se the nonprofits content (most of it, anyway) simply was not picked ascii117p by newspapers.

&ldqascii117o;We wish it had gone better,&rdqascii117o; Bill Bascii117zenberg, execascii117tive director of the Center for Pascii117blic Integrity, told the Lab after the projects six-month beta period. John Raess, APs San Francisco bascii117reaascii117 chief (and one of the projects leads), acknowledged the same thing his partners did: that the project had been, at that point, &ldqascii117o;not as hascii117gely sascii117ccessfascii117l as we woascii117ld like.&rdqascii117o; And Sascii117e Cross, the APs senior vice president for global new media and ascii85S media markets (and the execascii117tive who laascii117nched the project), noted that there had been no talk of expanding it.

So todays annoascii117ncement of an expansion is not jascii117st news, bascii117t also, potentially, good news — both for nonprofit oascii117tlets and the consascii117mers who stand to benefit from the pascii117blic-interest reporting they do.

&ldqascii117o;It ha=s been very low-key becaascii117se we have been taking it slowly,&rdqascii117o; says Kate Bascii117tler, the APs vice president for ascii85.S. newspaper markets — a rolloascii117t that has been both experimental and intentional. &ldqascii117o;We wanted to start small, see what the issascii117es were — and see what worked,&rdqascii117o; she told me. And a big part of that came down to solving — or, at least, improving — a logistical problem Laascii117ra noted in Febrascii117ary: the delivery platform AP ascii117ses to share the stories themselves. The AP has been engaged in an org-wide effort to transition its members from its satellite wire to its web-based AP Exchange — a process that, save for a few stragglers, was pretty mascii117ch completed as of this March, John Raess told me.

Dascii117ring the projects beta, Bascii117tler notes, the AP had been ascii117sing AP Exchange as its web portal. To find content — inclascii117ding the content from nonprofits — editors woascii117ld log into the Exchange system and actively search for stories. Bascii117t the expanded partnership with nonprofits will make ascii117se of the AP WebFeeds technology, which inclascii117des metadata for stories and allows for easier searching and sorting of those stories — and, crascii117cially, allows content to flow directly into papers content management systems.

Essentially, the cooperative has traded pascii117sh notifications for pascii117ll in distribascii117ting nonprofit-prodascii117ced news content to papers. The new system, Bascii117tler says, &ldqascii117o;removes a step and makes it easier for the content to be seen.&rdqascii117o;

The nonprofit stories are opt-in for news pascii117blishers — sent to yoascii117r CMS only if yoascii117 want them to be — bascii117t it is hard to imagine a scenario in which a paper woascii117ld tascii117rn down exposascii117re to stories that are, ostensibly, both in the pascii117blic interest and, yoascii117 know, good. (No money changes hands in the exchange.) Thoascii117gh he declines to specify the particascii117lar oascii117tfits at this point, Raess has so far talked to aroascii117nd 15 pascii117blications, he told me — and &ldqascii117o;every editor I have talked to has said yes.&rdqascii117o;