Associated Press will syndicate non-profit investigative journalism

By Cory Doctorow at 9:37 pm Saturday, Jun 13

The Associated Press (who once suggested that bloggers should pay for five-word excerpts of its stories, and should be forced to promise not to use those excerpts to make fun of the AP) have found a new progressive streak and announced a plan to syndicate investigative journalism stories financed by nonprofits:

Starting on July 1, the A.P. will deliver work by the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and ProPublica to the 1,500 American newspapers that are A.P. members, which will be free to publish the material...

As they sharply reduce their staffs, many newspapers have cut back on investigations or given them up entirely. When there are barely enough reporters to cover the daily news from the local courthouse and the school board, it is harder to justify assigning someone to an in-depth project that might take weeks or months.

At the same time, independent groups doing investigative journalism have grown in number and size, fueled by foundations and wealthy patrons, and are offering their work to newspapers, magazines, television and radio news programs, and news Web sites. ProPublica was created in 2007 and the Investigative Reporting Workshop in 2008. The Center for Investigative Reporting has operated for more than three decades, and is doubling in size. The four groups combined have more than 50 professional journalists.

A.P. in Deal to Deliver Nonprofits' Journalism (via /.)