More than 200 new sites have adopted hNews microformatting, the new transparency system for organising metadata in news stories, the Associated Press has confirmed.

hNews, a past winner of the Knight News Challenge, attaches location and authorship information to news stories.

It also provides the subject matter of the story, where it was written, any usage rights associated with it and any news principles to which it adheres. Part of the Value Added News project, it was launched by the Web Science Trust - of which Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a trustee - and the Media Standards Trust.

This month's new sites join hNews existing partners OpenDemocracy, AOL and TownNews. In July 2009 the AP announced it would trial the microformat on all AP news stories and launch an AP Developer API in beta, making news stories in the new microformat available to third parties.

"That so many sites are adopting hNews not only shows the concept is simple and attractive but that it’s straightforward to integrate to existing publishing systems," said Media Standards Trust director, Martin Moore.

"We'll now be looking carefully at how it benefits web traffic and search, and whether new revenue opportunities emerge."

Journalism.co.uk will report with more detail on the project in due course.