We’re making two important changes to how AP publishes text kills and News Alerts. Both are designed to make killed content easier to find and remove, and to make developing stories easier to follow.
What you need to know:
1. No technical changes are required. However, depending on how your systems identify, filter or auto-publish AP content, we recommend reviewing your configuration with your technical team or vendors.
2. These changes will be made on Monday, Oct. 5 at 11:30 am ET.
When AP kills a text story, we will no longer simply remove it from view. Instead, we will publish:
1. A kill notification as the next version of the story, in the same chain, with a publish status of usable and an explanation from our Standards team. e.g. slug: AP-Sample Story, KILL-4th Ld-Writethru
2. A standalone advisory e.g. slug: AP-Sample Story, ADVISOR
What this means for you:
3. Kills will now be visible in AP Newsroom and delivered through Media API making killed content easier to identify and withdraw.
4. If a replacement story is issued, it will be sent as the next version in the same chain.
5. A separate advisory will be sent outside the story chain, so kill notices are both human and machine-readable.
6. If you auto-publish AP stories, note that these publishable kill notifications will also now appear in the story chain. You may want to filter them out before publication.
How to identify a text kill:
7. Headline: STORY REMOVED: Sample story
8. Publishable story slug: AP-Sample story, KILL-xth Ld-Writethru
9. Kill advisory slug: AP-Sample story, ADVISORY
10. Eds Updates: Eds: BULLETIN KILL: Do NOT use… A kill is mandatory.”
11. Body: NEW YORK (AP) – The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about the sample story. AP will publish a corrected version of the story.
12. Editorial type: Kill
Media API JSON example:
“pubstatus”: “usable”,
“ednote”: “Eds: BULLETIN KILL: Do NOT use Final Testing, published on Aug. 28, 2026, and datelined in NEW YORK. A kill is mandatory.”,
“editorialtypes”: (“Kill”),
“signals”: (“newscontent”),
“title”: “Final Testing, KILL”,
“headline”: “STORY REMOVED: Final Testing”,
Media API NITF story body:
ed-msg info=“Eds: BULLETIN KILL: Do NOT use Final Testing, published on Aug. 28, 2026, and datelined in NEW YORK. A kill is mandatory.”/
AP News Alerts will now be attached directly to their related stories in a single content chain, rather than filed as separate items. This makes alerts easier to follow and shows how a story develops.
For the 2026 general election in the United States, news alerts with AP race calls will remain separate from stories.
What changes:
13. Alerts will all still have APNewsAlert in the slug. If they are the first take of a story, that will be the whole thing. If they come as a writethru to a story, the alert slug will be combined with the story slug. For example, alerts on a Trump-Elections story would appear like this:
14. US-APNewsAlert
15. Trump-Elections, 1st Ld Writethru
16. Trump-Elections-APNewsAlert, 2nd Ld Writethru
17. Alerts filed mid-chain will include the body of the previous version, so readers see more than a one-sentence alert:
_________ WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump administration appeals latest ruling blocking his mail voting order days before first ballots go out.
THIS IS AN APNewsAlert. Check back for updates. AP’s earlier story is below.
The Trump administration is appealing a judge’s ruling that blocked limitations on mail voting before the midterm elections, the latest twist in a court fight unfolding days before the first states begin sending out mail ballots.
The notice of appeal filed Friday comes after a federal judge in Boston handed down a new decision blocking implementation of an executive order from President Donald Trump for the next two weeks.
_________
What stays the same:
18. Alerts remain identifiable by the NewsAlert editorial role in Media API JSON and by APNewsAlert in the slug.
19. Alerts will still be collected in APNewsAlert-specific products.
20.
Linked media and placement in headline queues persist throughout the chain for both alerts and full stories.
If you have questions or would like help discussing your implementations, please contact customerintegration@ap.org.
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