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The Association of Independent Publishers (AIP) is southern Africa's largest umbrella body for independent grassroots, community, and advocacy publications.
Registered as a Section 21 non-profit organisation, AIP is dedicated to growing the diversity and pluralism of the region's grassroots media by proctively improving the quality and sustainability of independent publications.
AIP seeks to achieve this by focusing on the business of publishing.
AIP therefore maintains executive representation on nine statutory or regulatory bodies that shape the local media industry, as well as sitting on the boards or advisory councils of a further seven media advocacy bodies, and regularly serving on an ad-hoc basis with a network of other industry organisations.
In addition to its extensive lobby activities, AIP positions itself as the primary clearinghouse for research, policy debate, and the setting of industry standards for the grassroots press sector. The association also proactively develops technical training materials, management toolkits & tipsheets, and Free Open Source Software (FOSS) products for grassroots publishers.
AIP has spearheaded the region's most comprehensive census yet of grassroots publishers, and uses the research results to power a public access database that analyses market trends, gives advertisers direct access to individual publications, and facilities qualitative research into the sector.
Other flagship AIP projects include:
AIP Bursary Scheme: AIP is piloting the first 18 of an envisioned 72 annual university bursaries and scholarships for grassroots publishers, managers, editors and senior journalists. The mid-career courses are intended to improve the strategic and technical management skills of independent publishers.
Newspaper-in-a-Box (NiB): AIP is developing the first set of FOSS tools to help grassroots publishers improve the competitiveness and efficiency of their companies by improving management of their advertising, payroll, and distribution systems.
Grassroots Advertising Procurement (GAP): AIP has commissioned the region's first qualitative research into strategies and possible new mechanisms for improving grassroots access to mainstream advertising and related revenue.
Publishing 'Peace Corps': AIP is fund-raising to establish a network of veteran publishers and media managers from the conglomerate and mainstream industry who volunteer for placement for up to six months with grassroots media as technical consultants and management mentors.
AIP manages its lobby campaigns and other projects from its secretariat offices in Rosebank, Johannesburg, as part of the broader PMSA cluster of media advocacy organisations.
AIP does not receive core funding from any entity.
The Newspaper Association of SA (NASA) does, however, make an annual grant to cover AIP's basic office overheads & PMSA membership expenses. AIP projects are funded by individual donors, including the statutory Media Development & Diversity Agency (MDDA) and MAPPP-Seta, and independent donors such as the Open Society Foundation (OSF), and the Netherlands Institute of Southern Africa (NiZA). | 
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