The Associated Press

The Associated Press, a not-for-profit news cooperative headquartered in New York, operates as a prime contractor (99% of awards) delivering wire services, multimedia news content, news production software, and editorial imagery to federal agencies on a full-and-open basis with no set-aside utilization across its recent federal award footprint.

The Associated Press commands a concentrated federal customer base dominated by Voice of America, which accounts for 69 awards totaling $52 million in combined potential value — more than 76% of the vendor's combined $68.1 million across all 228 awards. The Department of State, spanning its Office of the Secretary of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, and Bureau of International Information Programs, anchors the secondary tier with $8 million combined potential value across 20 awards. Defense Media Activity, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs round out the top five. The top five customer agencies cover 57% of award count and 91% of combined potential value, signaling significant concentration risk in the Voice of America relationship.

AP's service portfolio spans live remote news reporting, wire story and image licensing, news production system software (AP Enterprise News Production System, or ENPS), and editorial image and footage archives. Representative prime work includes a $9.6 million firm fixed-price definitive contract awarded by Voice of America in September 2022 for enterprise-wide wire service access (text, video, photos, and images) with completion through September 2027; a $300.3 million definitive contract from the Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, awarded in November 2023 for editorial images and footage access spanning 2024 through 2028; a $191.2 thousand purchase order from the Office of Cuba Broadcasting in August 2023 for AP ENPS software for 50 desktops running through July 2027; and recurring Voice of America purchase orders in 2026 ($792.9 thousand and $835.7 thousand) for news and multimedia services through May 2027. Recent grant work includes two Department of State project grants (2022–2024) totaling approximately $100 thousand to deliver high-quality AP news content to Pacific Island, Laotian, and Timorese media outlets as a counterweight to Chinese state-controlled information.

Activity has remained steady over the past five years (seven awards in 2022, seven in 2023, six in 2024) with a sharp decline in 2025 (one award) and minimal activity visible in 2026 (two awards as of June). Five awards worth $11.9 million in combined potential value face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete exposure primarily in the Voice of America relationship. AP sits on one named blanket purchase agreement (BBG39A150007) hosting 29 task orders worth $125 thousand and places work under USSOCOM Wide Mission Support, though the majority of awards are direct purchase orders rather than task orders under standing vehicles.

The Associated Press operates three named not-for-profit and for-profit subsidiaries — Wide World Photos, Inc., Associated Press Television News LTD, and Press Association, Inc. — which collectively support the broader federal services footprint. In its minimal subcontractor role (1% of awards), AP delivers news content and imagery to Booz Allen Hamilton in support of the Senior Military Engagement Program (two sub awards in 2023 and 2024). Top NAICS categories across the award portfolio center on News Syndicates (44 awards), Satellite Telecommunications (35 awards), and Television Broadcasting (18 awards), reflecting the multimedia and distribution-focused nature of the work.