The Rebooting Show The AP's pivot to tech
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Dec 9, 2025 Kristin Heitman, Chief Revenue Officer at the Associated Press, is steering the organization into the tech landscape, moving from a newspaper-focused model to one where tech companies now account for 15-20% of revenue. She discusses how the AP is adapting its licensing strategies for AI and other tech needs, emphasizing the importance of recency for accurate AI outputs. Heitman shares insights on negotiating with tech firms, expanding into new markets, and the AP's commitment to maintaining its independence while evolving its offerings.
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AP's Core B2B Licensing Model
- The AP is primarily a B2B licensing organization that supplies news as data to thousands of customers worldwide.
- It operates with journalists on the ground in 100 countries and 250 locations, making its output valuable for many downstream uses.
Revenue Mix Has Shifted Toward Tech
- U.S. newspapers now contribute under 10% of AP revenue while tech companies make 15–20% today.
- Kristin expects the technology share to roughly double in the next few years as AI demand grows.
Tech Uses: From Images To LLM Training
- Tech customers license AP content for elections, images, video, and now for AI training and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
- Growth is driven by demand for both training data and fresh content for RAG/display layers.