Request for statements of interest: Product & AI Studio

NOTE: All roles for January 2025 have been filled and we are not currently seeking additional contract positions on this project. To be considered for potential future opportunities later in 2025, you may submit a statement of interest here.

The American Journalism Project’s Product & AI Studio (PAIS) is seeking partners – qualified contractors, vendors, and/or consultants – to support a series of projects that aim to expand the impact of AI-powered solutions within nonprofit news organizations.

Our focus is on delivering measurable revenue growth and enhancing civic information usage by leveraging AI tools through two cohorts comprised of news organizations in our portfolio:

  • Revenue Experimentation: One cohort will focus on the design, build, and testing of new AI-powered tools for revenue diversification. This includes tools for revenue and development leads in newsrooms to improve the process for prospecting; grant applications; award submissions; earned revenue opportunities; and more.
  • Civic Information: Collaborators will work to build AI-powered tools that help nonprofit newsrooms access and utilize civic data in storytelling and audience engagement. This includes identifying, transcribing, extracting structure and generating content from civic databases, and information from city hall meetings, school board meetings, state legislative sessions, public records, press releases and interviews, etc.

Each cohort will consist of several AJP grantees who will share knowledge, collaborate, and test solutions throughout a twelve-month period.

This is a unique opportunity to work with a diverse cross-section of AJP’s portfolio, collaborating with product leads in newsrooms, PAIS staff, and partners to deliver on a wide range of projects and showcase both direct impact to newsrooms and open, publishable findings for the broader journalism community.

Deliverables will include case studies, landscape analyses, convenings, industry reports, and open-source software. Contractors will be full-scale partners in this work.

We expect to require:

  • Project leadership – Two Project Leads will oversee the alignment of grantees, partners, and contractors within each cohort, ensuring that all stakeholders share resources and collaborate effectively. The Project Lead will ensure that the project is in scope, on schedule, and delivering on the objectives and broader goals of the PAIS.
  • Technology building – 2-3 technology contractors will ensure the tools used by the newsrooms in the cohort meet the highest standards of data integrity and web engineering. The contractors will work closely with the project leads and the PAIS to refine these tools into products that can be utilized across the AJP network. These contractors will co-lead the design, build, and extension of AI-powered tools in close collaboration with newsrooms and tech providers to ensure the tools meet the needs of the cohort.
  • Research support – 1-2 research support contractors will assist PAIS, AJP staff, and the project leads with quality assurance, analysis, and tool review. This contractor will also involve monitoring industry trends to ensure that the tools are meeting industry standards and that the cohort is at the forefront of technology and AI in civic journalism.
  • Communications support – 1 communications support contractor will assist with internal and external communication, helping to share progress and outcomes from the cohort with stakeholders and the wider community. These will take the form of interviews, case studies and other outcomes and impact to showcase the projects’ success and replicability.

Partners will work closely with AJP and the PAIS staff to scope and support the overlapping projects and skills needed.

Interested parties should submit an application here. We are accepting applications from individuals and firms alike, and will also consider opportunities for part-time or fractional roles.

While we have a set budget for this work, we are open to a variety of ways to tackle it. If a specific project or aspect of this work stands out to you, please don’t hesitate to apply and let us know how you might envision working with us and our portfolio.