About IPTC

IPTC is the Global Standards Body of the News Media

Our mission is to simplify the distribution of information. We develop and promote efficient technical standards to improve the management and exchange of information between content providers, intermediaries and consumers. We thereby enable easy, cost-effective and rapid innovation and product development.
We are committed to open standards and make all of our standards freely available to our members and the wider community.
Founded in 1965 and based in London, the IPTC brings together the world's leading news agencies, publishers and industry vendors.

Our History

The International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) was established by a group of news organisations including the Alliance Européenne des Agences de Presse, ANPA (now NAA), FIEJ (now WAN) and the North American News Agencies (a joint committee of Associated Press, Canadian Press and United Press International) to safeguard the telecommunications interests of the world’s press. Since the late 1970s IPTC’s activities have primarily focussed on developing and promoting industry standards for the exchange of news data of all common media types.

IPTC Now

Currently more than 60 companies, organisations, associations and individuals from the news and media industry are members of the IPTC, drawn from all over the world.

IPTC members meet face-to-face at our twice annual IPTC Meetings and we also host the IPTC Photo Metadata Conference at the CEPIC Congress each year.

We continue to maintain our popular technical standards such as NewsML-G2, NinJS, RightsML and the IPTC Photo Metadata Standard, and we keep up to date with developments in media technology so we can share our expertise and create new standards where necessary.

We also maintain the IPTC NewsCodes controlled vocabularies, including the global standard Media Topics subject vocabulary, currently covering six languages and constantly looking to be translated into new languages.

We are always looking for new areas where we can add value to the media technology community.

Board of Directors

Image of Dave Compton
Dave Compton
Director / Refinitiv
Image of Heather Edwards
Heather Edwards
Director / The Associated Press
Image of Paul Harman
Paul Harman
Director / Bloomberg
Image of Gerald Innerwinkler
Gerald Innerwinkler
Director / APA
Image of Philippe Mougin
Philippe Mougin
Director / AFP
Image of Jennifer Parrucci
Jennifer Parrucci
Director / New York Times
Image of Brendan Quinn
Brendan Quinn
Managing Director / IPTC
Image of Robert Schmidt-Nia
Robert Schmidt-Nia
Chair / DATAGROUP Consulting Services
Image of Guowei Wu
Guowei Wu
Director / Xinhua

Network & Influence News Media Standards

Become a Member

  • Network with industry peers
  • Be the first to learn about emerging industry topics
  • Simplify product development with industry standards
  • Learn from the experience of leading professionals
  • Enable the free and unhindered flow of information