Building on two years of work with the American Press Institute, the AP Fund for Journalism is now bringing Metrics for News to 10 local newsrooms and laying the groundwork to measure audience impact across a growing national network. The fund was created to help strengthen and sustain local public service journalism nationwide by providing newsroom partners with AP journalism and resources to support their reporting and grow their audiences.
Metrics for News helps publishers understand what, why and how audiences engage with their journalism. For more than a decade, that data has informed editorial and business decisions across media types, such as launching newsrooms, starting specialized newsletters, changing beats and experimenting with social platforms.
“Strong local journalism starts with understanding the communities you serve,” said Robyn Tomlin, executive director of the American Press Institute. “This partnership will help newsroom leaders better understand how audiences engage with their journalism and use those insights to make stronger editorial and business decisions. It will also generate valuable lessons that can benefit the broader local news ecosystem.”
In addition to equipping local newsrooms, this partnership establishes a shared measurement framework and a network-level dashboard that helps APFJ see patterns across publishers — what coverage drives deep engagement, how newsrooms grow and retain their audiences — while each newsroom still tracks the local goals that matter most to it. As the fund expands its support to more newsrooms in the coming years, the same impact infrastructure is built to scale alongside it.
Selected by the AP Fund for Journalism, these news organizations completed onboarding and will continue to receive training support from API until April 2027:
- Arizona Luminaria in Arizona
- Broadband Breakfast in Washington, D.C.
- Bucks County Beacon in Pennsylvania
- The Connecticut Mirror in Connecticut
- The Current GA in Georgia
- El Tecolote in California
- Enlace Latino NC in North Carolina
- Mongabay in California
- Planet Detroit in Michigan
- WyoFile in Wyoming
“We believe local communities should have access to nonpartisan reporting from a trusted source, and we work with our partners to help localize national and international news that affects people’s lives,” said Rachel Aretakis, director of impact strategy at the AP Fund for Journalism. “Through Metrics for News, we hope to better understand the information needs of local audiences and how they engage with this journalism. We also want to learn how sharing measurement infrastructure can deepen our impact as well as the impact of our local newsroom partners.”
For more information, contact Liz Worthington, director of product strategy, at liz.worthington@pressinstitute.org.
If you are interested in partnering or financially supporting Metrics for News, please email Yoni Greenbaum, API’s vice president of product strategy, at yoni.greenbaum@pressinstitute.org.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN PRESS INSTITUTE
The American Press Institute supports local and community-based media through research, programs and products that foster healthy, responsive and resilient news organizations. API envisions an inclusive democracy and society, where communities have the news and information they need to thrive. API is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization, and its parent organization is the News/Media Alliance.
ABOUT AP FUND FOR JOURNALISM
The AP Fund for Journalism was created by The Associated Press in 2024 to support public service journalism and make it accessible to state and local news organizations in the U.S. APFJ’s ambition is to underpin and support the U.S. news ecosystem by ensuring news services and widespread access to reliable, nonpartisan and fact-based news and information in underserved issue areas, including but not limited to state and local news. APFJ also supports journalism in topical areas, like health, democracy, education and climate.
