What Associated Press does

The Associated Press is a 179-year-old nonprofit news cooperative founded in 1846 and headquartered in New York, operating one of the world's largest multi-format news-gathering and distribution networks across more than 100 countries. Its core product is the AP news wire: text, photo, video, and structured data services delivered to subscribing newspapers, broadcasters, and digital media outlets, complemented by the consumer-facing AP News website, mobile apps, and a portfolio of newsletters, the AP Stylebook, investigations, fact-checking, and photography platforms. AP's primary technology differentiators are its global visual journalism operation (U.S. video journalist headcount doubled since 2022), authoritative U.S. elections data infrastructure, and 180+ years of continuously archived news content.

AP's revenue model is a hybrid of subscription-based news wire syndication, licensing of content to technology and AI companies, and emerging data monetization. Traditional newspaper syndication fees have compressed sharply, with newspaper clients now representing only 10% of revenue (down 25% over four years), while licensing of AP's journalism for AI training has become the fastest-growing stream, with 200% revenue growth from technology company customers (OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Snowflake) over the same period. AP also participates in Microsoft's Publisher Content Marketplace and has begun selling structured U.S. elections data to commercial predictions markets such as Kalshi, signaling a deliberate commercial pivot toward AI licensing and data products as the legacy print wire business contracts.

Name

Associated Press

Legal name

The Associated Press

Website

https://apnews.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1846

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Associated Press is a 179-year-old nonprofit news cooperative that distributes text, photo, video, and structured data to global media clients, and licenses its journalism and elections data to AI companies and predictions markets as its primary growth engine.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

News Wire Services

NAICS

Newspaper Publishers (513110), Newspaper Publishers (51311), Broadcasting and Content Providers (516)

SIC

Newspapers: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2711)

akta.pro primary industry

News Agencies & Wire Services (General & Specialized) (MPAJADAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Investigative & Nonprofit News Organizations (MPAJADAF), Data Journalism & News Intelligence Publishers (Indexes, Election/Market Data) (MPAJADAK), Syndication, Licensing & Content Partnerships (Columns, Features, Photos) (MPAJADAI), Online Article & Blog Publishing Platforms (MPAJAMAF)

Keywords

• News wire service
• Image syndication
• Video journalism
• AI training data
• Election data feeds

Headquarters

HQ city

West New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. News Wire Syndication: B2B subscription and licensing fees from newspapers, broadcasters, and digital media outlets for access to AP news content, photos, video, and data services. Traditional core revenue stream now declining as newspapers account for only 10% of revenue, down 25% over four years.
2. AI Content Licensing: Revenue from AI companies including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Snowflake for licensing AP content to train AI models. This stream has grown 200% over four years and represents a strategic pivot from declining print revenue.
3. Publisher Content Marketplace: Partnership with Microsoft's Publisher Content Marketplace platform enabling AI developers to license premium publisher content for training. Publishers retain content ownership and editorial independence while setting their own pricing.
4. Elections Data Sales: Sale of U.S. elections data to commercial entities such as the Kalshi predictions market, generating revenue from structured authoritative data.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Associated Press is a global news agency and member-owned cooperative that produces and distributes original news content (text, photos, video, and structured data) to media organizations and technology companies via wire feed syndication and content licensing. AP also licenses its news archives and real-time content to AI companies (OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Snowflake, Amazon) for model training, and sells structured U.S. elections data to commercial predictions markets such as Kalshi.

Product overview

The Associated Press operates a multi-format news platform centered on AP News (apnews.com), a comprehensive digital news service delivering text articles, video journalism, photography, and interactive content across 20+ topic categories including World, U.S., Politics, Sports, Business, Science, Health, Climate, Technology, Entertainment, and Lifestyle. The product portfolio includes core content delivery through AP News, complemented by engagement products (AP Quizzes, AP News Games), newsletters (The Morning Wire, The Afternoon Wire), reference tools (AP Stylebook), specialty content (AP Investigations, AP Fact Check, Photography/AP Images), election coverage services, and emerging revenue streams through AI content licensing partnerships with OpenAI, Google, Snowflake, and Microsoft. AP has pivoted from a print-focused model (now only 10% of revenue) toward visual journalism and AI-driven content licensing, with 200% growth in technology company revenue since 2022.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• AP Stylebook: AP's style guide and reference publication for journalism writing standards
• The Morning Wire
• The Afternoon Wire
• AP Entertainment Wire
• Ground Game
• The Sports Wire
• World of Faith
• The World in Pictures
• AP Top 25 Poll Alerts
• AP Images Spotlight Blog
• AP Definitive Source Blog
• AP Fact Check

Products and services

• AP News Wire Syndication Subscription-based wire feed distributing AP's text stories, photographs, video, and data services to newspapers, broadcasters, and digital media outlets globally.
• AI Content Licensing Licensing of AP's news articles and text content to AI companies including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Snowflake, and Amazon for use as training data for large language models and AI systems.
• Microsoft Publisher Content Marketplace Participation in Microsoft's Publisher Content Marketplace platform enabling AI developers to license AP's premium content for AI training; publishers retain content ownership and editorial independence while setting their own pricing.
• AP Stylebook AP's industry-standard style guide and reference tool for journalists and writers, providing standardized writing, grammar, and formatting guidelines for the news industry.
• AP Images (Photography Licensing) Photography licensing and sales platform distributing AP photojournalism, photo essays, and visual content to media clients and other buyers through the AP Images service.
• Elections Data Sales Sale of authoritative, structured U.S. elections data to commercial predictions markets (e.g., Kalshi), providing real-time election data feeds for betting and forecasting platforms.

Quantifiable outcome

• More than half the world's population sees AP journalism every day
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• OpenAIcoreTechnology or IntegrationAP has established an AI content licensing deal with OpenAI for use of AP journalism in training AI models. This partnership represents AP's strategic pivot toward technology companies as primary revenue sources, growing 200% over four years.
• GooglecoreTechnology or IntegrationAP has established AI partnerships with Google for content licensing. Google represents one of the major technology companies AP has deals with as part of its strategic shift toward tech company customers.
• MicrosoftcoreTechnology or IntegrationAP participates in Microsoft's Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), a platform allowing AI developers to pay publishers for licensed premium content to train models. Microsoft has partnered with AP along with Vox Media, Condé Nast, and People, with licensed premium content found to significantly improve Copilot AI response quality.
• SnowflakecoreTechnology or IntegrationAP has established deals with Snowflake for AI data partnerships. Snowflake is one of the technology companies AP has agreements with as part of its strategic focus on tech company revenue growth.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Reuters: Reuters is the most direct global wire service competitor to AP, offering text, photo, video, and data feeds to media outlets, financial terminals, and corporate clients. Both operate as international news agencies serving newspapers, broadcasters, and increasingly AI/data customers with comparable multi-format syndication.
• AFP (Agence France-Presse): AFP is a global French-headquartered news agency and AP's closest peer in the international wire service category, providing text, photo, video, and data feeds to media clients worldwide. Both compete for newspaper and broadcaster subscriptions and are pursuing similar AI content licensing strategies.
• Press Association (PA Media): PA Media is the UK national news agency, providing wire service, photography, and increasingly data and AI content licensing to UK and international clients. It operates a similar multi-format syndication model and competes with AP for global media and AI customers.

Regional players

• dpa (Deutsche Presse-Agentur): dpa is Germany's national news agency and a leading European wire service competing with AP in continental media markets. It offers similar multi-format syndication and is also pursuing AI content licensing partnerships, making it a regional peer in the same product category.

Emerging players

• Shutterstock: Shutterstock licenses images, video, and music to enterprise customers and has signed major AI training data deals with technology companies. It competes with AP in the content licensing space, particularly for visual and editorial content used in AI model development.
• Storyful: Storyful is a social media news agency acquired by News Corp that curates and licenses user-generated content and verified news assets. It overlaps with AP's editorial wire service and emerging AI content licensing models for verified third-party content.
• Getty Images: Getty Images is a leading visual content licensing platform with a comparable photography and video licensing business to AP Images. Both monetize proprietary visual archives to media and enterprise customers and are pursuing AI training data licensing for image and video models.

Broad incumbents

• BBC News: BBC News is a publicly funded global news organization with extensive wire service capabilities, multi-format content (text, video, audio), and a substantial international bureau network comparable to AP's. It serves both consumer audiences and licensed media clients with comparable editorial infrastructure.
• Bloomberg News: Bloomberg operates a large newswire and data business with multi-format content distribution, particularly in financial and business news. While its core is a paid terminal, Bloomberg's content licensing and visual assets overlap directly with AP's B2B syndication and data monetization plays.
• Thomson Reuters (Wire): Thomson Reuters owns the Reuters wire service and combines it with legal, tax, and regulatory data products. Its news and data licensing business directly parallels AP's B2B wire, data sales (including elections and market data), and AI content licensing initiatives.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/AP
• Facebookfacebook.com/APNews
• Instagraminstagram.com/apnews

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Associated Press