Anonymous Sources

Transparency is critical to our credibility with the public and our subscribers. Whenever possible, we pursue information on the record. When a newsmaker insists on background or off-the-record ground rules, we must adhere to a strict set of guidelines, enforced by AP news managers.

 Under AP's rules, material from anonymous sources may be used only if:

 1. The material is information and not opinion or speculation, and is vital to the report.

 2. The information is not available except under the conditions of anonymity imposed by the source.

 3. The source is reliable, and in a position to have direct knowledge of the information.

 Reporters who intend to use material from anonymous sources must get approval from their news manager before sending the story to the desk. The manager is responsible for vetting the material and making sure it meets AP guidelines. The manager must know the identity of the source, and is obligated, like the reporter, to keep the source's identity confidential. Only after they are assured that the source material has been vetted by a manager should editors and producers allow it to be used.

 Reporters should proceed with interviews on the assumption they are on the record. If the source wants to set conditions, these should be negotiated at the start of the interview. At the end of the interview, the reporter should try once again to move onto the record some or all of the information that was given on a background basis.

 The AP routinely seeks and requires more than one source when sourcing is anonymous. Stories should be held while attempts are made to reach additional sources for confirmation or elaboration. In rare cases, one source will be sufficient – when material comes from an authoritative figure who provides information so detailed that there is no question of its accuracy.

 We must explain in the story why the source requested anonymity. And, when it’s relevant, we must describe the source's motive for disclosing the information. If the story hinges on documents, as opposed to interviews, the reporter must describe how the documents were obtained, at least to the extent possible.

The story also must provide attribution that establishes the source's credibility; simply quoting "a source" is not allowed. We should be as descriptive as possible: "according to top White House aides" or "a senior official in the British Foreign Office." The description of a source must never be altered without consulting the reporter.

 We must not say that a person declined comment when that person the person is already quoted anonymously. And we should not attribute information to anonymous sources when it is obvious or well known. We should just state the information as fact.

Stories that use anonymous sources must carry a reporter's byline. If a reporter other than the bylined staffer contributes anonymous material to a story, that reporter should be given credit as a contributor to the story.

 All complaints and questions about the authenticity or veracity of anonymous material – from inside or outside the AP – must be promptly brought to the news manager's attention.

 Not everyone understands “off the record” or “on background” to mean the same things. Before any interview in which any degree of anonymity is expected, there should be a discussion in which the ground rules are set explicitly.

These are the AP’s definitions:

On the record. The information can be used with no caveats, quoting the source by name.

Off the record. The information cannot be used for publication. Background. The information can be published but only under conditions negotiated with the source. Generally, the sources do not want their names published but will agree to a description of their position. AP reporters should object vigorously when a source wants to brief a group of reporters on background and try to persuade the source to put the briefing on the record.

Deep background. The information can be used but without attribution. The source does not want to be identified in any way, even on condition of anonymity.

In general, information obtained under any of these circumstances can be pursued with other sources to be placed on the record.

ANONYMOUS SOURCES IN MATERIAL FROM OTHER NEWS SOURCES

Reports from other news organizations based on anonymous sources require the most careful scrutiny when we consider them for our report.

AP's basic rules for anonymous source material apply to material from other news outlets just as they do in our own reporting: The material must be factual and obtainable no other way. The story must be truly significant and newsworthy. Use of anonymous material must be authorized by a manager. The story we produce must be balanced, and comment must be sought.

Further, before picking up such a story we must make a bona fide effort to get it on the record, or, at a minimum, confirm it through our own reporting. We shouldn't hesitate to hold the story if we have any doubts. If another outlet’s anonymous material is ultimately used, it must be attributed to the originating news organization and note its description of the source.

ATTRIBUTION

 Anything in the AP news report that could reasonably be disputed should be attributed. We should give the full name of a source and as much information as needed to identify the source and explain why the person s credible. Where appropriate, include a source's age; title; name of company, organization or government department; and hometown. If we quote someone from a written document – a report, email or news release -- we should say so. Information taken from the internet must be vetted according to our standards of accuracy and attributed to the original source. File, library or archive photos, audio or videos must be identified as such. For lengthy stories, attribution can be contained in an extended editor's note detailing interviews, research and methodology.

Knowledge 2023 - ServiceNow pitches the ‘exponential enterprise’ as it announces ERP workflows and generative AI tools

Some 15,000 attendees descended on Las Vegas this week for ServiceNow’s annual user event, Knowledge, where the workflow vendor made a number of announcements that CEO Bill McDermott believes can support customers in becoming ‘exponential enterprises’. More on what that means, later. 

The announcements range from bolstering ServiceNow’s skills programme, to supporting non-profits, to new ERP workflow capabilities, and of course, integrating with generative AI tools. diginomica has an interview with McDermott later in the week to dig deeper into the announcements, but following the keynote this morning, it’s clear that the company is progressing at pace with its strategy to unify systems of record to create a ‘system of engagement and action’ across the enterprise. 

Speaking on stage, McDermott said: 

ServiceNow it is the intelligent platform for end-to-end, digital transformation. We're cleaning up the mess.

We're building the future of business on this intelligent platform, for end-to-end digital transformation. That's what we're building.

By way of context, ServiceNow has found success with customers by recognizing that its platform can be used to unlock value for buyers across their organizations, using the Now platform to tap into siloed systems of record, creating a common system of engagement/action. In essence, it aims to reduce complexity by providing employees or customers with automated workflows that don’t require an understanding of the complexity that’s built into an underlying system of record. 

Historically, ServiceNow built a name for itself within IT, for its ITSM workflow capabilities. However, it has since expanded its presence across the enterprise, as its customers saw opportunities for using the platform in areas that range across HCM, CRM and ERP (and integrating across all of these). 

A key selling point for buyers is that they don’t need to replace technology purchase decisions of the past, building on top of existing systems, and enabling automated workflows across organizational boundaries. 

Now with the advancements on AI (read more on the product releases below), McDermott said that the Now platform can become the foundation for  what he is calling the ‘exponential enterprise’. He said: 

To maximíze this moment we need to understand the difference between linear and exponential thinking. If we take 30 linear steps - 1, 2, 3, 4 - we will go 30 meters. But if we took 30 exponential steps - 1, 2, 4, 8 - we actually go a billion meters. That’s the difference between thinking old school and thinking exponentially. 

So let's think about applying that mindset to where our businesses have been, where they are today and where they need to go. I call this the exponential enterprise. It goes beyond the 20th century architectures, beyond these silos that kill us, beyond the side projects. It moves to end-to-end digital transformation. 

It goes beyond last year's results or last month's numbers, to predicting the future outcomes with great accuracy. This will drive beyond expectation results for your companies. And it will drive a new era of economic prosperity in the world for the exponential companies.

So for the technology landscape, it's always a question of what to build and what to buy and how to operate at maximum efficiency. My take on it is we have the great re-prioritization of enterprise systems. And this is a massive undertaking. And we're gonna simplify everything for you. 

To support this top-level ambition, let’s take a look at some of the announcements coming from ServiceNow this week. 

As most will know, McDermott has a long history in the field of ERP - having previously served as SAP CEO for a number of years. But more importantly, if ServiceNow wants to be a system of engagement/action for the whole enterprise, it cannot ignore the system of record that is often described as the ‘engine of the enterprise’. 

McDermott told diginomica last year that ServiceNow would be targeting ERP modernization, without forcing customers to consolidate, upgrade or rip out their systems. Today we got some finer details on what this looks like, with the launch of ServiceNow Finance and Supply Chain Workflows. 

ServiceNow said that Finance and Supply Chain Workflows bring together people, processes, data and technology to support new features that include: 

Speaking with media and analysts yesterday, and commenting on the progress with ERP, CJ Desai, ServiceNow’s Chief Product Officer, said: 

When an employee wants to purchase something - if you think about it, a few years ago, it was not easy for an employee to do that. If an employee wants to purchase something, how can we give them an Amazon-like experience that works with the procurement department, things that have been approved by the corporation, and integrates with ERP systems? This is not a system of record, this is a system of action that works well across systems of record. 

He added: 

We also have been onboarding and offboarding employees using ServiceNow workflows in our HR product for a long, long time. Think about a large organization that is onboarding suppliers, offboarding suppliers, is doing compliance checks, ESG checks - that entire workflow is currently manual and it is usually a mailbox with lots of emails flying around. 

So we believe that supplier lifecycle management can be done on ServiceNow in a really, really efficient way, that makes suppliers’ lives easier, but also the organization or department that deals with suppliers. 

As is the case with many other B2B vendors in 2023, ServiceNow announced new generative AI capabilities for the Now platform. However, it’s worth noting that ServiceNow is taking a two phased approach to this. Today it is announcing partnerships with Microsoft’s Azure Open AI Service and OpenAI’s API large language models. Down the line, ServiceNow will, however, be prioritizing its own domain specific LLMs - as it believes that this will move it beyond the general purpose capabilities of the likes of OpenAI. Think along the lines of an LLM for ITSM, an LLM for HCM, an LLM for CSM, etc. 

We will be exploring this in a more detailed piece over the coming days, so keep an eye out for that. However, the crux of today’s announcement is: 

Speaking about the impact of AI on the enterprise during today’s keynote, McDermott said: 

There have been substantial times in history, when systems have actually changed in the world. This new period of hyper-automation will be bigger than all of them combined. Think about it this way: the industrial revolution changed the way we work at scale; the .com era changed the way we consume and transact; social media and mobile changed the way we connect and communicate. 

This next revolution is an intelligence revolution, which is about machines. But it's also a creative revolution which is about the people and the potential of the people. And we will be rethinking everything. How we work. How we live. How we build. And how we make mission critical decisions

We can consume data faster now, and more proficiently, thanks to generative AI. Data no longer needs to be classified to train the machine. With AI, intellectual capital is more valuable than physical or even monetary capital, because intelligence will now become the primary source of value creation. 

A lot to digest on the first day of Knowledge and in mind there are two clear priorities that should be focused on: the generative AI tooling that ServiceNow is planning to build itself (not all datasets are the same and domain specificity in the enterprise will matter), and the vendor’s continued development of a cross-enterprise system of engagement/action. These two things combined do hold the potential for customers to accelerate value creation - but as ever, it’s the customer stories that matter. So we look forward to speaking to more buyers over the coming days.