A letter from the chair and CEO

As we write this letter, the war in Ukraine is in its second year and the world is still grappling with the aftermath of a global pandemic. The AP remains committed to delivering eyewitness journalism, even in places where reporting the news is immeasurably more challenging. In Ukraine, AP journalists continue to show the world what is happening on the ground, providing defining visuals from Mariupol at the start of the war, reporting on repeated attacks in Kharkiv and Bakhmut, revealing Russian “cleansing operations” in Bucha, and more. In China, where media is restricted and residents are surveilled, AP documented unprecedented lockdown protests and a new facet of the pandemic: government exploitation of COVID-19 tracking technology. In Africa, a yearlong series on the impact of the pandemic on African women revealed the pervasiveness of widow abuse across the continent. In the U.S., AP delved into the lingering effects of the pandemic on students, from the crunch to teach third graders to read to high schoolers unprepared to enter college.

The 2022 midterm elections presented both challenges and opportunities for this news organization, whose role in U.S. elections dates to 1848. AP once again rose to the occasion, counting the vote and declaring winners in races up and down the ballot in all 50 states with over 99.9% accuracy. We bolstered our explanatory reporting around how elections work — and how AP counts the vote and calls races — increasing transparency around the outsized role AP plays in the American democracy.

Our work with philanthropic foundations continued last year, allowing us to provide greater depth in key coverage areas, and building on our reporting around climate, financial wellness, democracy, public health and inclusive storytelling. With climate reporters now based across Brazil, India, Kenya and the U.S., AP has delivered sweeping journalism on the profound and varied impacts of climate change on society. As always, AP retains complete editorial control in these and all collaborations with outside groups.

AP ended 2022 in a strong financial position, exceeding revenue projections and growing revenue significantly. We continue to diversify our customer base and revenue sources, focusing on our services businesses that provide broadcast facilities and infrastructure; newsroom production software; customized content creation for brands; and advertising, as we build out APNews.com to improve engagement with our audience. Last year we reimagined our core product offering to U.S. customers, making it more visual and digital friendly, and adding explanatory content and localization guides to help outlets turn major stories into local news. We made significant advancements in technology as we continued our migration of platforms and services to the cloud, retired legacy systems, and introduced new ones, like a faster elections platform that provides a modern, data-driven experience for our customers. All of this work underpins our ability to do great journalism. As an independent news organization, every dollar we earn goes into producing the world’s most comprehensive news report.

We did all this while harnessing the deep culture that defines the AP: the commitment from every member of our team to our mission. We know we can better produce factual journalism by evolving the way our employees work as individuals and as part of a global news organization. We are excited about what this will mean for our 176-year-old cooperative. As the year continues to unfold, there is no doubt that AP will continue to report from around the world in an accurate, unbiased way to ensure that we deliver the news that informs half the world’s population every day.

Gracia C. Martore
Chair

Daisy Veerasingham
President and CEO