Daisy Veerasingham New AP EVP/COO

Daisy Veerasingham

The Associated Press appointed Daisy Veerasingham, its executive vice president and chief operating officer, as the news cooperative’s president and CEO on Tuesday, setting her up to replace the retiring Gary Pruitt at the beginning of next year.

She will become the first woman, first person of color and first person from outside of the United States to lead the AP in its 175-year history.

Veerasingham, 51, is a first-generation Briton of Sri Lankan descent. Her appointment speaks to the changing portrait of the AP, where 40% of the company’s revenue, double what it was 15 years ago, is now generated outside of the United States.

She’ll be tasked with continuing to diversify income sources. The AP, caught in the same financial vise as most of the media industry, saw its revenue drop to $467 million in 2020, down more than 25% in a decade.

Veerasingham said she’s determined to maintain the AP as a source of fact-based, nonpartisan journalism, and to fight for freedom of the press and access to information. The AP produces roughly 2,000 news stories, 3,000 photos and 200 videos every day, reaching more than half the world’s population.

“These are values that are core to the AP since its founding 175 years ago,” she said in an interview. “I think that they are actually more important today.”

Pruitt, 64, has led AP since 2012. The company has won six Pulitzer Prizes under his leadership, two of them this year, and had three other finalists for journalism’s top award in 2021.

He’s currently working with Veerasingham to find a successor to Sally Buzbee as the AP’s executive editor, an appointment expected in a month or two. Buzbee was named executive editor of The Washington Post this spring.