The American Journalism Project has secured an additional $5 million investment from OpenAI to expand its Product & AI Studio and develop reusable artificial intelligence tools for nonprofit local news organizations.
OpenAI will provide the funding over the next two years. It is also contributing $3 million in service credits, including API and ChatGPT Enterprise access, to support product development, newsroom experimentation and broader use of AI across the American Journalism Project’s portfolio.
The renewed commitment follows OpenAI’s original $5 million investment when the Product & AI Studio launched in 2023. The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation has also contributed a cumulative $1.6 million to the initiative.
The Studio was initially created to help nonprofit newsrooms test how generative AI could support journalism responsibly. Its work has included translation, fundraising communications, public meeting coverage, data analysis and civic information projects.
The American Journalism Project said the program is now moving beyond individual experiments toward building shared products and infrastructure. These tools will initially serve news organizations in its portfolio, which collectively cover more than 100 communities across 38 states, before potentially becoming available to the broader nonprofit local news sector.
The Studio’s expanded strategy will focus on three areas: experimenting, sharing and building. It will continue helping newsrooms test new workflows, publish playbooks and case studies, and develop products that can be reused across multiple organizations.
The first planned product will focus on revenue growth. It is being designed to help nonprofit news organizations improve communications with existing and prospective donors.
The American Journalism Project said its earlier programs produced measurable gains for participating newsrooms. Four organizations working with BlueLena used AI to improve their year-end fundraising campaigns and reported a combined 30% increase in donations.
Wisconsin Watch used an AI-supported system to identify claims made through podcasts, radio programs and social media for short fact-checking articles. The organization estimated that the workflow reduced the time required for each publication by approximately six times.
Civic News Company has used AI to transcribe and analyze school-related public meetings in New York. City Bureau has applied large language models to identify patterns across its collection of civic meeting information.
Translation has also emerged as a reusable application. A workflow originally developed by Centro de Periodismo Investigativo was adopted by Enlace Latino NC to create its first English-language newsletter and later used by Boyle Heights Beat to provide multilingual information during the Los Angeles fires.
The American Journalism Project said participating newsroom teams increased their confidence in identifying, teaching and responsibly deploying AI use cases by approximately 30%. The organization has emphasized a “human in the lead” model in which newsroom executives and employees maintain control over how AI is integrated into editorial and business operations.
The new funding will support additional newsroom partners, product engineering, and experimentation. Portfolio organizations will be able to choose whether to access OpenAI’s Enterprise products and API services.
