Updates to AP’s News leadership

In a memo to staff on Wednesday, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Julie Pace announced updates to AP’s News leadership:

Our priority in News this year is accelerating our digital transformation to ensure AP’s world class journalism remains essential for our customers and reaches new audiences around the world. This requires us to embrace new forms of digital storytelling, use data to drive our decision-making around coverage and investments, and pursue new ways to financially support our journalism.

I’m excited to announce a few changes in News leadership to support these priorities.

Michael Giarrusso is our new Vice President of News Strategy. Michael is one of AP’s most experienced and creative leaders, and a true champion for digital journalism. In this role, Michael will work with teams across News – as well as in Revenue and Technology – to identify distinctively AP journalism that can be packaged and promoted in ways that engage our customers’ digital audiences, as well as our own audience on APNews. He’ll also serve as the key liaison in News to the AP Fund for Journalism – our sister philanthropic organization – to support APFJ’s work raising funds to bolster state and local news in the United States, as well as other topical grant funding to underpin our journalism. 

Michael brings to this role deep experience on both of these strategic priorities. In his most recent role leading newsgathering for our Global Beats teams, he has overseen the development of our audience-friendly Be Well and personal finance coverage, our engaging livestream shows from red carpets and the 2024 solar eclipse, and a new, streamlined approach to covering sports games. Michael has also overseen AP’s largest grant-funded teams – including Health and Science, Religion and Climate – and been instrumental in ensuring philanthropic dollars are available to support coverage across the News division. 

Michael joined AP as an intern in Atlanta in 1992 and has held a variety of roles across both News and Revenue, including an 8-year stint as Global Sports editor. He is also a co-founder, along with Amanda Barrett and Julie March, of AP’s Inclusion Champions program and a leading advocate for newsroom diversity, both inside and outside of AP. 

Michael’s team will include:

Corinne Chin, director of News Talent for Recruitment. Corinne has been a leader at AP in recognizing both internal and external talent, and ensuring that our approach to staffing is aligned with our strategic goals as an organization. That includes expanding the ranks of our visual journalists and ensuring that diversity is a priority in hiring and promotion.

Jessica Gresko will lead our strategy work with The Associated Press Foundation for Journalism to bolster grant funded services for state and local newsrooms in the U.S. This builds on the strong work Jessica has done with our topical grants, as well as her leadership last year connecting non-profit newsrooms in the U.S. with AP coverage of the 2024 election.

Steven Sloan will take on a year-long assignment leading strategy for grant funded content from the U.S. as we look to expand our work with non-profit newsrooms and other digital outlets. This work will build on Steven’s successful leadership of U.S. elections coverage through multiple cycles – including the 2024 election, where our digitally optimized content drove record traffic on APNews. 

Please join me in congratulating Michael and his team.