AP launches small business newsletter

The Associated Press has launched a small business newsletter for consumers. It’s weekly and free.

Global business editor Brad Foss explained its origins:

The newsletter showcases AP’s distinctive coverage of news and trends affecting small businesses and it helps us reach a niche audience in a new way. We just launched a beta version of Strictly Small Business a few weeks ago and are getting great feedback from readers.

The success of Strictly Small Business would enable us to pour even more resources into covering small business for all AP customers — and that is the long-term goal here. Experimentation is at the core of what we’re doing, and Strictly Small Business is sure to evolve over time.

This product was born out of AP’s participation in the Matter Ventures partner program, in which journalists are given training in design thinking to help them develop new revenue-generating products. Taking a look at small business coverage from the point of view of business owners helped us make a pivot from simply writing “about” small businesses to reporting/writing in a way that aims to help small businesses make better decisions.