Patrick J. McGovern Foundation Renews Support for the NPAi Co-Lab
The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation has renewed its partnership with NPA to support the News Product AI Collaboration Lab (NPAi Co-Lab), to advance responsible AI adoption in journalism through open infrastructure and shared data standards. This continued collaboration strengthens our joint commitment to helping news organizations use technology ethically and effectively to serve their audiences.
Over the past year, the NPAi Co-Lab has moved from concept to execution, grounding its work in research with newsroom partners and structured workstreams. Guided by our Advisory Board —the evolution of our original AI Working Group— and pilot newsrooms, we scoped down the opportunity of AI-powered listening for better product–market fit and identified the real pain points holding small and local publishers back: fragmented systems, weak use of qualitative data, and limited capacity to act on first-party data (1PD).
Building on these findings, we are developing an open first-party data schema: a foundational framework co-created with Newsroom Robots that supports small and local publishers in generating, structuring, and applying first-party data responsibly. The first iteration of the schema and its accompanying CLI tool are now complete and being validated with live partner data to ensure usability in real newsroom environments. This milestone marks a shift from experimentation to implementation, creating the foundation for responsible, data-driven AI adoption across the industry.
This technical work is complemented by practical learning materials that help newsrooms apply these concepts in their day-to-day operations. These include the guide ‘Understanding First-Party Data: A Guide for Newsrooms’, and the resources ‘Newsrooms Must Prepare for AI by Getting Their First-Party Data Right’, ‘Responsible Data Collection Strategies for News Organizations’, and ‘Helping Small and Local Newsrooms Harness Their Superpower’. Additional materials will continue to be published in the coming months, expanding on our mission to leverage AI to ensure journalism evolves as consumer behaviour evolves.
With renewed support from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, the next phase of the NPAi Co-Lab will focus on productizing the schema for adoption, packaging it with documentation, canonical fields, and practical newsroom pilots, and embedding it in a community-led governance model. This work will ensure that open, shared infrastructure for AI in journalism remains accessible, ethical, and sustained by the community it serves.
“Everyone deserves access to trustworthy journalism, and reporters need the right tools to understand and serve their communities. The NPAi Co-Lab is building the infrastructure that helps newsrooms work smarter and connect more deeply with their audiences. Our partnership with the News Product Alliance reflects a simple belief: strong newsrooms mean stronger societies,” said Vilas Dhar, President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation.
“We’re deeply grateful for the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation’s continued support and for the partners who have made the NPAi Co-Lab a space for safe collaboration and industry-wide transformation. Together, we’re proving that open, community-driven innovation can help newsrooms not only adopt AI responsibly, but shape how technology serves journalism and the people it’s meant to inform,” said Feli Carrique, NPA’s Executive Director.
About the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation (PJMF) is a philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence and data science solutions to create a thriving, equitable, and sustainable future for all. PJMF works in partnership with public, private, and social institutions to drive progress on our most pressing challenges, including digital health, climate change, broad digital access, and data maturity in the social sector.
