AP Classification Metadata

AP News Taxonomy

AP News Taxonomy is a classification system for English-language news content that includes standardized subjects, geographic locations, people, organizations and publicly traded companies. This search- and SEO-friendly taxonomy is designed to support digital news products. Each tag includes a relevance score that can be used to filter tags or sort stories in your systems. Only the most salient and relevant tags are returned to make it easier for you to discover AP content and to use it in your own production systems.

AP Classification system automatically enriches news content with all the relevant metadata tags from the News Taxonomy.

• Accurate and relevant metadata tags. AP Classification of news content goes well beyond mere text extraction; it uses a hybrid approach to concept and entity tagging, leveraging a deep knowledge graph for better domain targeting, as well as human-created context-aware semantic rules that understand the content and identify the most pertinent entities and topics. Only the tags that truly describe the content are returned, along with their relevance scores. The AP Classification system not only recognizes and returns specific entities that it finds in the content, but also uses human-created semantic rules to identify topics that may not be explicitly mentioned in the text at all. For example, a story about a particular country music star can trigger the "Country music" subject, even if the word "music" does not appear in the story.

• Frequent, timely metadata updates. AP metadata is continuously updated to capture the latest news and the biggest newsmakers. Whether it’s this week’s IPOs or the new crop of college athletes, AP’s taxonomy developers are always working to keep the vocabularies current and relevant.

AP Subject

AP Subject is a set of topics geared toward news coverage, ranging from broad categories (for example, Education) to specific concepts (for example, School curricula), including relevant, timely topics, such as Activism, Diversity, Equity and inclusion, and Wellness. Only subjects that directly match the content are returned; broader topics are not returned unless they also match the content directly.

AP Subject also includes many named events; for example, Academy Awards and Tour de France, as well as breaking news events as they happen. Events that drop out of the news cycle and seem unlikely to return are reviewed and deprecated on a rolling basis.

For more information, see a complete list of AP Subject terms.

AP Geography

AP Geography contains geographic place names, such as cities, U.S. states, Canadian provinces, Australian states and territories, countries, continents, points of interest and natural features; for example, lakes and mountain ranges. World regions (for example, Eastern Europe, Greater China, West Africa) are not included.

For more information, see a complete list of AP Geography terms.

Available properties include:

• Location type (generic type label; for example, "City," "Country," "Province")

• Latitude and Longitude (centroid coordinates)

Location Type

AP Person

AP Person covers celebrities, artists, designers, authors, business leaders, political figures, sports figures, royalty, and other newsmakers known at the global or US national level. Coverage is especially broad for US newsmakers in politics, entertainment and sports, including complete rosters for major professional sports teams, NCAA football and basketball athletes and coaches on the rosters of Power Five Conference and the Big East teams, all US officeholders at the federal and gubernatorial levels, and all candidates for those offices.

Sports Figures

The AP applies tags for the following:

• All US pro athletes and coaches on the rosters of the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, WNBA and MLS teams.

• All NCAA football and basketball athletes and coaches on the rosters of the Power Five and Group of Five Conferences, the basketball athletes and coaches on the rosters of the Big East, Atlantic 10 and West Coast Conference, and a short list of priority players and coaches determined by AP’s sports coverage.

• A priority list of about 100 non-US pro soccer players and coaches determined by AP’s sports coverage.

• Select F1, NASCAR and IndyCar drivers based on AP's sports coverage.

• Select golfers, tennis players, cyclists and other professional athletes based on AP's sports coverage.

The AP does not apply tags for complete Olympic rosters for all national teams in favor of a list of priority athletes determined by AP’s sports coverage.

About Person Properties

Available properties include:

• Person type (main category for each named individual).

• Team (for team athletes and coaches only). The team(s) on which an athlete plays. The team values and codes are available as part of the list of AP Organization terms.

• Associated event (only for archive content and only for athletes and coaches participating in Olympic games or FIFA World Cup). Represents a relationship between a person and a current event, typically, the person's participation in or some significant contribution to the event; for example, a player's participation in 2018 FIFA World Cup. For more information, see Associated Event Name and Code Examples.

Person Type

AP Person main categories for named individuals include:

Associated Event Name and Code Examples (for Archive Content Only)

For more information about the AssociatedEvent property, see AP Winter and Summer Olympics Metadata.

AP Person Extractions

In addition to existing known AP Person tags with unique identifiers (AP GUIDs) from the AP Person Taxonomy, AP Classification Person tags also include AP person extractions (people names extracted from the content). As breaking news stories develop, person extractions allow for tagging previously unknown newsmakers starting from the first story where they appear. AP Person extractions have a Type of PERSON and relevance scores, but no AP GUIDs or other associations that come with the existing AP Person Taxonomy tags.

AP Organization

AP Organization includes organizations and institutions from a wide variety of sectors: government organizations, non-profits, sports teams, colleges and universities, political and ideological groups, cultural institutions and more.

• US pro sports. The AP applies tags for organization terms, including leagues, conferences, divisions and teams, only for NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, WNBA and MLS.

• Olympic teams. AP’s terms for every country's team in the form "Italy Olympic team" are not included.

• Non-US soccer.

• The AP applies sports team and league terms only for English Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, Ligue 1 and La Liga. Relegated teams are not included.

• National soccer team terms, in the form "Qatar National Soccer Team," apply only to content about teams that have qualified for the upcoming FIFA World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup.

• NCAA football and men's basketball:

• The AP applies tags for organization terms for teams of schools that compete in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), plus teams in the Big East, Atlantic 10 and West Coast Conference.

• For each school, there is only one term for NCAA men's basketball and football teams; for example, "Tennessee Volunteers" rather than separate terms for "Tennessee Volunteers men's basketball" and "Tennessee Volunteers football." This term applies to athletes representing the school in all varsity-level sports.

• US state governments. The AP applies tags for terms for each state government in the form "Nevada state government." Individual departments (for example, "Nevada State Legislature") are not included.

• Military terms. AP tags US military branches, but not subordinate units. National military terms (for example, “Australian armed forces”) are not included.

For more information, see a complete list of AP Organization terms.

AP Company

AP Company covers all companies trading on NYSE, NASDAQ, Toronto Stock Exchange, Tokyo Stock Exchange and XETRA - Frankfurt (in bold in the list of Stock Exchange Codes). Also included are newsworthy companies trading on other exchanges and select private companies. For all publicly traded companies covered in AP Company, AP Media API delivers the primary instrument and industry with the tag. The primary instrument consists of a stock exchange abbreviation and ticker symbol.

Available properties include:

• Ticker. Ticker symbol for a security.

• Exchange. Code for the stock exchange the security is traded on.

• Instrument. Combination of the exchange and ticker, separated by a colon.

• Industries. One or more industries related to the company. The AP Industry values and codes are available as part of the list of AP Subject terms.

Stock Exchange Codes

AP Event

Names of planned events; for example:

• Sports events, such as NFL football games.

• Developing news events, such as The Latest, AP's special editorial representation of developing news stories. For more information, see The Latest - Developing Stories.

Additional Classification Metadata

Profile (Item Content Type)

The logical editorial type of the content item, currently used for text, audio and video. Provides a processing hint to applications that allows them to quickly determine the content type for inclusion or exclusion in product groups or automated processes.

Text

• Advisory. Scheduled or ad-hoc messages not for publication. Used for scheduled digests and coverage advisories, as well as package advisories and coverage plans tied to specific planned or breaking news events.

• Agate. Statistical data generally, although not exclusively, used for sports, financial markets and economic data.

• Analysis. Stories specifically headlined "AP News Analysis" with rules already established by News.

• Column. A regular feature written by the same person or a substitute about a specific subject or topic, with or without an opinion included.

• Daybook. A list of upcoming events that the AP may not necessarily be covering. Not for publication.

• Feature. Stories that are NOT focused on a breaking news angle, but are a feature, workup or trend story. It can include stories that have an incidental spot angle, but whose overall focus is big-picture. Also used for a biography of a person or a company, or a feature story focused on one person, as well as for archival text, such as the AP Was There series.

• ExtendedHeadlinePackage. Long headlines with links to full text of the top stories, as chosen by editors in a particular category.

• Game Story. Sports stories about a particular game or sporting event.

• HeadlinePackage. Short headlines with links to full text of the top stories, as chosen by editors in a particular category.

• InvestigativeEnterprise. Major investigative work or enterprise journalism. This includes AP Exclusives or other such stories that others are not reporting, even if there is no immediate spot angle.

• List. A series of short points or items such as Today in History or 10 Things to Know series.

• Lottery Results. Lottery results only (does not include stories about lotteries or lottery winners).

• NewsBrief. The first two paragraphs and links to full text and associated pictures of the top stories, as chosen by editors in a particular category.

• Obituary. A spot story about the death of a person.

• Opinion. A point of view, advice, evaluation or judgment expressed by an editor, journalist or a subject-matter expert. Used for editorial roundups.

• PhotoGallery. A text file aggregating and describing a collection of photos. Includes photo essays.

• Press Release. A text or multi-media item providing non-journalistic information to the news media from a PR, government or corporate organization.

• Preview. A story previewing an upcoming, scheduled event.

• Review. A review of a book, play, concert or other cultural event.

• Running. An item that reports on a developing story with a series of chronological updates. Used for The Latest and other ongoing events, such as sports matches or tournaments.

• Sports Scores. An item containing in-progress or end of game scoring statistical information.

• Spot Development. A report on an event or news item that happened today, or that we are learning about today that needs to be reported immediately.

• Transcript/Verbatim. Transcripts or excerpts.

• Weather Forecast. A prediction of future weather.

Audio

• Actuality. An audio recording of a newsmaker talking, also known as a sound bite.

• Music. An audio recording of music only.

• Question and Answer Session. An audio recording of an interview, typically between a producer and a correspondent or stringer, about stories they are covering.

• Raw Sound. An audio recording of nonverbal sounds, also known as "natural sound," "ambient sound," or "production sound."

• Response to a Question. An audio recording of a newsmaker responding to a question.

• Scener. An audio correspondent report recorded at the scene of a news event. The reporter does the report with the sounds of the event audible in the background.

• Voicer. An audio correspondent report in which you hear only the voice of the correspondent.

• Wrap. An audio correspondent report that incorporates the voices of both correspondent and newsmaker. Generally, the reporter introduces the newsmaker, the newsmaker says a few words, and the reporter then finishes out the story.

Video

• Moment. A short item that captures just the key imagery of an event.

• Explainer. A fact filled item that adds context around the breaking news of the day.

• Voiced. A first-person video that presents the news from the perspective of a reporter or a person in the story.

• Longerform. Investigations and special content.

Fixture

Named sets of regularly occurring content or features with a predictable focus; for example, "Financial Markets," "Film Reviews," "10 Things to Know," "Sports Briefs." For more information, see a complete list of AP Fixtures.

AP Category Code

AP category codes are applied to text, pictures, graphics and video by AP editors.

English-Language Text Stories

AP Category Codes for International Text

Spanish Service

Dutch Service

Arabic Service

AP Category Codes for Pictures and Graphics

AP Category Codes for Video

AP Supplemental Category

AP supplemental category codes are applied to pictures and graphics by AP editors.

Urgency

The editorial urgency assigned to the content from 1 (the highest) to 8 (the lowest).