The Center for Public Integrity is joining the Associated Press in a pilot project to distribute investigative journalism from nonprofit organizations to the wire service’s 1,500 member newspapers. Announced by AP today at the annual Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Baltimore, the project promises to put the Center’s hard-hitting stories in front of editors at nearly every U.S. daily newspaper.

The six-month project begins July 1 and will include the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop, and ProPublica. Stories will be carried via the AP’s Web-based delivery system, AP Exchange, and will be available free to the newspapers and contributing organizations. If successful, AP may add other nonprofit journalism organizations, which are growing quickly as conventional news outlets face financial woes and shrinking staffs.

“We’re seeing exciting growth in foundation-supported and other nonprofit journalism organizations that are producing public service journalism, which is at the heart of AP’s news values,” said Sue Cross, senior vice president, Global New Media & U.S. Media Markets. “As a news cooperative that enables its members to share content and provides them with a variety of choices, we want to foster an exchange that helps them easily access this journalism.”

“Comprehensive numbers are elusive, but it is clear that increasingly foundations are funding news,” AP noted in its press release announcing the project. “Of the 115 news ventures that received funding in the past four years cited by J-Lab at American University in its recent report, 102 — 87 percent — launched since 2005. Overall, of the nearly $128 million in grants for news projects tracked by J-Lab, nearly $65 million went to support investigative initiatives. More than half that amount funded investigative initiatives launched since the start of 2005, representing funding to six new national or regional investigative reporting projects.”

The Center’s executive director, Bill Buzenberg, is enthusiastic about the new project. “The Center for Public Integrity believes in holding institutional power accountable, and in the widest possible dissemination of our in-depth investigative work,” said Buzenberg. “The new AP platform via AP members has the potential to give citizens greater access to this watchdog reporting that our democracy needs to function properly. I am extremely pleased that the Center will be part of this pilot program.”

Founded in 1846, AP is the world’s largest source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world sees news from the Associated Press.

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