The Associated Press is among publishers seeing “some concerning trends” around advertisers being wary of working with news providers in the current political news cycle.
Chief revenue officer and senior vice president Kristin Heitmann said the US-based news agency has a “significant revenue diversification effort underway” with digital advertising as one of its growing areas.
The AP News consumer-facing website and app relaunched in June 2023 and Heitmann said it saw “a lot of audience growth” last year especially around the US presidential election, with page views up 39% year on year to 2.6 billion.
APNews.com was the eighth biggest news website in the US by number of visits in February according to Similarweb, up 76% year on year to 122.8 million.
“Obviously this is a very heavy political news cycle and so we’ve seen a lot of people coming back to AP News directly for our breaking news coverage, not just though on politics, but on all topics,” Heitmann said.
“And what we’re trying to do is now that we have developed a new audience, ensure that we’re continuing to engage them, so that they come back to the AP.”
Heitmann was speaking at Press Gazette’s Media Strategy Network USA event in New York last Thursday (13 March) alongside Sara Badler, The Guardian’s chief advertising officer for North America, and Tara Maitra, BBC Studios chief commercial officer, global media and streaming, on a panel chaired by Arc XP chief customer officer Jennifer Leire.
Asked by Leire whether advertisers are pulling back because of the current political and economic climate, Heitmann said: “Pre-election, we saw people waiting on the sidelines a little bit to see what was going to happen… and I’d say, unfortunately, yes, we’re seeing some concerning trends in terms of advertisers waiting on the sidelines versus supporting the news industry right now.”
Nonetheless the AP’s direct-to-consumer revenue, including advertising, was up by more than 20% in 2024.
AP set to grow AI tech relationships
The AP is currently suing the White House after it was banned from presidential events in response to the agency refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, as ordered by President Trump, without qualification. Heitmann received a round of applause when referring to the lawsuit at last week’s event.
The majority (80%) of revenue at the Associated Press continues to come from content licensing.
Heitmann said AI licensing is a growing revenue stream: “licensing content for training and display in AI systems is certainly something we saw a lot of last year, and I think something that we’re seeing continue this year”.
Looking ahead to the rest of 2025, Heitmann said: “I would say revenue diversification is a top priority, and really leaning into areas that are in growth. And so for us, it is AP News from our consumer advertising and donation perspective, but certainly continuing the growth of our technology relationships from an AI licensing perspective.
“And then the last thing I would probably say is just news as data, whether you think of that as AI licensing or other products, there’s nothing like an eyewitness journalist seeing something or taking a picture of it or taking a video of it, you can’t replace that in terms of AI tools. So for us, that’s also a priority.”
Heitmann noted that the AP’s sustainability depends on its journalism. “We are a not-for-profit, but we are not a 501C3 [charity], so everything we make gets back invested into the news organisation, so we can only spend what we make.
“So I think we’re a little bit unique from that perspective in that we don’t have a parent company. We’re not a public company. We don’t have government funding. So really, the sustainability of the business is down to how we make money with what we can cover from the journalistic perspective. So it’s really inherent in the DNA of the AP.”
BBC doubles newsroom capacity in US
Meanwhile BBC.com and its app for audiences outside the UK relaunched last year and the corporation doubled its newsroom capacity in the US.
Tara Maitra, BBC Studios chief commercial officer, global media and streaming, told the event that this, alongside investment in search engine optimisation and video, resulted in a double-digit traffic growth for the last seven consecutive months.
“We’re growing at a faster rate than many of our commercial news competitors at a time when we’re all experiencing a busy and active news cycle, which tells me its due largely to the strength of our journalism and all the efforts we’re putting into transforming our global digital presence.”
Maitra said the BBC plays an important role at a time when “there’s so much disinformation out and misinformation out there.
“As an impartial, trusted source of journalism that is known for its integrity and global perspective, the BBC News mission is twofold: to provide accurate news and to proactively counter misinformation.
“In such a polarised landscape, with such few sources that people can go to for reliable facts, our journalism is breaking through globally.”
Guardian can make ‘long-term decisions’
Sara Badler, The Guardian‘s chief advertising officer for North America, told the event the newsbrand’s journalism plays a key role in driving revenue despite widespread concerns about brand safety from advertisers wary of being placed next to news content.
“I think our journalism is so important in the core of everything we do, and because of that, from a revenue perspective, it speaks for itself. People want to market, people want to advertise with us because of the integrity of our journalism.”
Badler also noted that The Guardian’s ownership by The Scott Trust “really is something that we’re very lucky to have because that helps us enable really long-term decisions, long-term benefits, rather than thinking about short-sighted revenue gains, which is really good for us.”
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