Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Juke joint package captures Grammy-nominated bluesman

teamed up to tell the moving story of a Mississippi blues artist who is keeping a musical tradition alive. Reporter Willingham couldn’t find a phone number for Grammy-nominated Jimmy “Duck” Holmes — musician, owner of the oldest-surviving juke joint in the country and the keeper of the unique Bentonia, Mississippi, blues musical tradition — so she set off to find him and interview him in the Blue Front Café. She then returned twice for more interviews, details of Holmes’ daily life, and impressive visuals by photographer Solis and video journalist Plaisance Jenkins. The all-formats package brought attention to Holmes’ rich musical contributions and conveyed a strong sense of place — Holmes’ café isn’t just a music spot but a part of the fabric of the close-knit community. The story had some 23,000 pageviews on AP News with remarkably high reader engagement.https://bit.ly/2OOQF1ihttps://bit.ly/3rGnewG

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP reveals Ethiopia’s sweeping detention of ethnic Tigrayans

broke the news that Ethiopia has swept up thousands of ethnic Tigrayans into detention centers across the country, often holding them for months and without charges. The disturbing revelations marked the latest installment in AP’s standout coverage of the conflict.The Ethiopian government had acknowledged detaining a small number of high-level military officials from the Tigray minority. But the reporting by Anna, AP East Africa correspondent, found the detentions were far more sweeping and arbitrary, including priests, teachers and nurses. She spoke with 15 detainees and families, including two who were still in detention centers and using smuggled phones. The arbitrary locking up of non-combatants is against international law, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has met with family members of detainees but declined to answer questions. https://bit.ly/3emkCjv

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Preparation, teamwork lead to deep coverage of US census numbers

relied on meticulous planning, their in-depth knowledge of the subject, and AP’s national footprint to lead comprehensive coverage of just-released 2020 U.S. Census numbers. The first batch of numbers were deceptively simple — on the surface, a single population number from each state and bare-bones information on congressional seats and presidential electors. But with robust preparation and background on the headcount’s implications, the pair pushed AP's coverage to the forefront nationally on an announcement that turned out to contain plenty of surprises.While leveraging AP’s reach with a big assist from colleagues who helped prepare state stories all over the country, as well as advance coverage of millennial migration, a likely Latino undercount in the Sunbelt and California’s loss of a seat for the first time in its history, Schneider and Riccardi deftly adapted the AP’s spot story to the news that 13 states would either gain or lose congressional seats. The spot coverage included an informative glance box of winners and losers, an interactive map and independent analysis by the AP data team.Taken as a whole, the weeklong tour de force showcased the AP’s range and depth, with Schneider and Riccardi leading the effort.https://bit.ly/3toZFZghttps://bit.ly/3elizMlhttps://bit.ly/2PRIz8Ohttps://bit.ly/2Suq5fDhttps://bit.ly/3b3eIBE

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

In all formats: Nurse battles back from COVID, lung transplant

produced a powerful and intimate narrative of one nurse’s precarious fight to survive COVID-19 — including the double lung transplant that saved her life.National writer Geller had wanted to find a health care worker recovering after being incapacitated by COVID. He started out calling hospitals around the country with lung transplant and COVID long-hauler programs, finally gettting a referral from Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital, which had performed the first and, by far, the most COVID lung transplants. They put him in touch with nurse Kari Wegg, who at one point before her transplant had been in a coma with little chance of recovery. Wegg got winded during their first phone conversation, a couple of weeks after she returned home, but she and her husband were open to telling their story. The AP trio would spend large parts of four days in the family’s Indiana home. The result was a riveting read with compelling visuals by Arbogast and Crawford, whose video was edited by multiformat journalist Allen Breed. The package won terrific online play, including the Chicago Tribune and Indiana news sites, with remarkably high reader engagement.https://bit.ly/3vtLoMDhttps://bit.ly/3gQXye6

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP leads coverage of attack on Iranian nuclear facility

used their experience and a quick response to cover the week’s fast-moving developments on an attack against Iran’s Natanz nuclear site, the second such assault amid tensions over its nuclear program. Iran initially blamed Israel for a cyberattack that caused a blackout and damage to underground centrifuges at the site, but later named an Iranian-born man as a suspect in the attack, saying he had fled the country “hours before” the sabotage happened.The team’s stellar coverage included six alerts, satellite images of the site and unmatched access to Iran’s nuclear spokesman, who was injured on a visit to the site after what he described as “a possible minor explosion.” AP’s work drew impressive play throughout the week.https://bit.ly/3gw39GJhttps://bit.ly/3tU1E9nhttps://bit.ly/3n9gB4I

Best of the States

AP team embeds in West Virginia city seeing a resurgence of addiction amid the pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic killed more than a half-million Americans, it also quietly inflamed what had already been one of the country’s greatest public health crises: addiction. 

To tell that story, a multiformat AP team — writer Claire Galofaro, photographer David Goldman and video journalist Mike Householder — spent time in Huntington, West Virginia, exploring the resurgence of addiction in a community that had made progress against drug abuse. The AP team embedded with the city’s Quick Response team for a week, providing a unique window into the suffering those with addiction have endured as the pandemic brought despair and cut off access to support systems and health care resources.

The evocative package resonated with readers, and the story’s main subject said she was “ecstatic” over how well the story captured the world she sees every day.

For sensitive and compelling coverage that furthers the AP’s efforts to explore the rippling consequences of COVID-19, the team of Galofaro, Goldman and Householder wins this week’s Best of the States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP package marks 20th anniversary of legal same-sex marriage

showcased AP’s global reach with a package marking the 20th anniversary of the Netherlands becoming the first country with legal same-sex marriages. Far more sweeping than a routine anniversary story, the coverage coordinated by New York-based national writer Crary and Netherlands chief correspondent Corder included an interview with one of the first couples married 20 years ago in the Netherlands. And with the help of multiple AP bureaus, it also detailed the uneven progress of same-sex marriage worldwide — now legal in 28 countries.In Amsterdam, the package was 20 years in the making — since April 1, 2001, when photographer Dejong documented the historic weddings. He re-edited those photos, then tracked down one of the couples he photographed in 2001; he and freelance video journalist Furtula persuaded the couple to grant an on-camera interview at their home.Back in the U.S., Goodman, photo editor for the Top Stories Hub, spent hours searching AP photo archives for images of milestone same-sex marriages around the world, producing a striking 24-photo package that included Dejong’s then-and-now photos. And top stories artist Francois Duckett created an interactive map showing the countries that have legalized same-sex marriage. AP’s impressive body of work won plaudits on social media and extensive play.https://bit.ly/3fRHFDLhttps://bit.ly/3sSZ3fi

Best of the States

Exclusive data analysis, reporting on child abuse reveal worrying pandemic trend, heartbreaking tale

A true multiformat team of AP journalists produced this Only on AP piece by tracking down data on child abuse from every state to reveal a worrying trend: Reports of abuse are down while signs of severity are up. The team complemented that dogged data work and hard news with the tragic story of one girl who fell through the cracks during the pandemic. 

Acting on information sourced by video journalist Manuel Valdes, Seattle reporter Sally Ho coordinated the 50-state data survey and an ambitious analysis with data journalist Camille Fassett. Ho also read through hundreds of child abuse reports to find the case of 9-year-old Ava Lerario, killed by her father in a small Pennsylvania town. Ho worked with Philadelphia photojournalists Matt Rourke and Matt Slocum, and New York video journalist David Martin, to tell the story of about how the system failed Ava. 

The team’s deeply reported package drew remarkably high reader engagement, and many news outlets localized the work using AP’s data distribution.

For exposing another disturbing inequality stemming from the pandemic, Ho and colleagues Valdes, Fassett, Rourke, Slocum and Martin share this week’s Best of the States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Backstage access makes AP a big winner on Grammy night

took advantage of agency exclusive all-formats backstage access at the Grammy Awards, resulting in a wealth of interviews for video, and photo access unmatched by wire service rivals. Isaza, Landrum and Pizzello underwent numerous COVID-19 screenings in the six days leading up to the show in order to gain access. That access came about because of the AP’s decade-plus relationship with the Recording Academy — and a firm stand by AP: Some artists demanded approvals of performance photos, which the AP declined, and some talent said they would only do interviews if certain questions were off limits. Again, no.The AP landed at least 20 video interviews with stars such as Dua Lipa, Da Baby, Miranda Lambert and H.E.R, touching on fashion, racial injustice, their pandemic experiences, the return to performing and more. The biggest wins were photos of Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, both rarely photographed by AP, on their big night. AP was one of four photo outlets onsite and the only photo news wire. Competitive news services were forced to use years-old pictures of the pair, as well as several other stars, with their stories.Isaza produced a behind-the-scenes video feature, and Fekadu’s mainbar — powered by photos from Pizzello and Strauss, and quickly updated thanks to his preparedness — racked up nearly 110,000 pageviews by Monday afternoon. Google listed AP’s story first in searches for Grammys or Beyoncé during the evening. https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

All-formats exclusives examine Japan tsunami, 10 years on

produced a string of visually driven exclusives to feed global curiosity about how Japan has fared a decade after one of history’s worst tragedies — the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that upended the lives of millions in 2011.Nuga and Hoshiko spent time on the battered northeastern coast while Yamaguchi, Tanaka and Komae made their way into the area around the Fukushima nuclear plant. The trips produced compelling before-and-after images of the wreckage, and all-formats vignettes of the lives of the survivors with explainers, galleries, videos and exclusive stories. Among the highlights were the moving story of a man who learned to dive so he could search, week after week, for for the remains of his wife, and gripping visual essays of the still-scarred landscape of northeast Japan, the eerie no-go zones near the nuclear plant and a hotel that has done weekly bus tours for hundreds of thousands of visitors interested in seeing the ravaged landscape. AP’s video showing was particularly strong, including footage of people symbolically searching the beach for bodies of the missing and quick live views of commemorative ceremonies across the country.https://bit.ly/3vBYckXhttps://bit.ly/38ONuxMhttps://bit.ly/2Q62S20https://bit.ly/3f1zFjthttps://bit.ly/3vyESEVhttps://bit.ly/3ttHTVm

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP duo tracks WHO investigators in Wuhan

teamed up with their Beijing colleagues, fast-filing all-formats content to keep AP ahead on the challenging, high-profile story of the World Health Organization mission to Wuhan to investigate the origins of the deadly COVID-19 virus. Video performance was consistently strong and notably outdid AP’s major competition on at least two days.Wang and Guan scrambled all week to follow the movements of the WHO delegation arriving and departing hotels and hospitals. Wang managed multiple live shots and Guan found angles to grab photos of the team; he also revealed some of their luggage: yoga mats and musical instruments.Meanwhile, the Beijing bureau was producing video edits from the live shots and expediting text based on the reports coming from the AP pair in Wuhan. On one day, Feb. 1, AP delivered five video edits, including a brief but rare comment from a WHO team member speaking from his car window, while a competitive agency had just two edits.https://bit.ly/2O6sVoWhttps://bit.ly/2MWrUishttps://bit.ly/3cHwbRRhttps://bit.ly/3jh6lVW

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Global all-formats reporting on China’s ‘vaccine diplomacy’

coordinated with AP colleagues around the world for a unique country-by-country tally to reveal that China has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccines to more than 45 countries, with inoculations started in 25 and shots delivered to another 11.Wu, based in Tapiei, Taiwan, and Sydney-based Gelineau reported that while the Western vaccines, such as Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, have received much of the attention for their headline-grabbing efficacy rates, a large part of the world’s population will end up inoculated instead with China’s humble, traditionally made shots — despite a dearth of public data on the vaccines and pervasive hesitations over their efficacy and safety.With text, photo and video feeds from around the world, the AP pair crafted a wide-ranging, colorful story that looked at the implications of “vaccine diplomacy,” as China tries to transform itself from an object of mistrust over its initial mishandling of the COVID-19 outbreak to a savior. https://bit.ly/3erGDxLhttps://bit.ly/3qE5dOf

Best of the Week — First Winner

Conspiracy, lies and social media: AP finds state, local GOP officials promoting online disinformation

After the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, investigative reporters Garance Burke, Martha Mendoza and Juliet Linderman wanted to know if local, county and state Republican officials across the country were continuing to amplify online messages similar to those that had inspired the riot, and what they hoped to accomplish by doing so.

The trio turned to data journalist Larry Fenn, AP statehouse reporters and a comprehensive archive of the Parler social media platform. A third-party algorithm matched public officials to their Parler accounts, allowing an unprecedented look at GOP officials’ unfiltered posts on the right-wing aligned site. The analysis of Parler and other alternative platforms identified a faction of lower-level Republican officials that have pushed lies, misinformation and QAnon conspiracy theories echoing those that fueled the violent U.S. Capitol siege.

For harnessing the power of social media analysis, data science and AP’s state-level expertise to reveal how lies and misinformation from the 2020 election have reached deep into the GOP’s state apparatus, Burke, Mendoza, Linderman and Fenn win AP’s Best of the Week award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Science-based reality check on pope’s planned Iraq trip

teamed up to provide a science-based reality check to the pope’s planned trip to Iraq. Their story raised questions about how the Vatican can justify going through with the trip during a global pandemic. Chief Vatican correspondent Winfield had been preparing a preview on the Iraq trip and Christian-Muslim relations, but while interviewing experts she realized that the virus issues would dominate that story. Instead, she and Baghdad colleague Kullab hustled to put together a weekend piece focused exclusively on the virus, adding a valuable story to AP’s planned trip line-up.Beyond the obvious risks involved in any mass religious gathering, the story also raised the more problematic optics of having a vaccinated papal delegation descend on a country where the virus is surging, the vaccine campaign hasn’t even begun and where an already fragile health care system has been weakened by war and economic crises. The story was well timed, given the day it moved the pope’s own ambassador to Iraq tested positive. https://bit.ly/2O0EcHD

Best of the Week — First Winner

Determined source work exposes horrific massacre in holy city of Ethiopia’s isolated Tigray region

Ethiopia’s military campaign in its defiant Tigray province has been shrouded in secrecy since the conflict started in November, but AP East Africa correspondent Cara Anna has been determined to report what happened in the virtually sealed-off region. She has chased every lead through relentless source work, building contacts and networks as she reported one exclusive after another.

For this latest exclusive, Anna had been hearing rumors of a massacre in the holy city of Axum. When phone service returned to the city recently, she was able to reach the deacon of the Axum church who described in disturbing detail the mass killings by Eritrean troops. He believes some 800 people were killed that weekend at the church and around the city, and that thousands in Axum have died in all. Anna found other survivors who corroborated the deacon’s story and offered additional details.

Her reporting scooped all other media and even human rights groups who had been investigating Axum. It also drew rare and surprisingly quick responses from the governments of both Eritrea and Ethiopia.

For determined and resourceful reporting to break through the secrecy surrounding the Tigray conflict and expose the atrocity at Axum, Anna wins AP’s Best of the Week award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP investigation reveals nonexistent mask shortage

acted on a tip from a former federal official to reveal that hospitals were continuing to ration medical masks for their workers even when they had months of supply in store. The team’s investigation found a logistical breakdown at the heart of the perceived mask shortage, rooted in federal failures to coordinate supply chains and provide hospitals with clear rules about how to manage their medical equipment.The initial tip came from a source inside the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who shared pages of emails asking why U.S. manufacturers weren’t able to sell their products. In a series of interviews, the reporters surveyed hospital procurement officers representing more than 300 hospitals around the country and learned that all had two to 12 months supply of N95 masks in storage, but almost all were limiting workers to one mask per day, or even one per week. Meanwhile, at least one manufacturer had so many masks warehoused that it recently got government approval to export them.The story was used widely, and Dearen was interviewed live on CBS News. https://bit.ly/3pOAhub

Best of the States

AP team finds diversity of politics and religion among West Virginia evangelicals

A tweet was the seed for this illuminating story. “Most people in my rural, Appalachian hometown are being radicalized at church by their pastor, which is the person they trust the most,” it read. AP’s Global Religion team ran with it.

Reporter Luis Andres Henao and visual journalist Jessie Wardarski visited the parishioners of three churches in Bluefield, West Virginia, including one pastor who had attended the Jan. 6 Washington rally that degenerated into a riot. The AP pair spent weeks convincing him to sit down for an interview. The result was an all-formats package of diverse congregations seeking common ground, even as they are divided on the role of evangelical Christianity in American politics. 

For applying gentle persuasion and balanced reporting to produce a nuanced look at religion and politics in one West Virginia town, Henao and Wardarski win this week’s Best of the States award. 

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP delivers powerful multiformat coverage of fast-moving Myanmar coup

Early in the morning of Feb. 1, AP’s Yangon bureau alerted colleagues in the Bangkok regional hub of rumors that lawmakers and other elected political leaders had been arrested. With communication lines down in the capital Naypyitaw, confusion gripped other parts of the country, but an alert went out to say there were reports of a coup underway. 

Photos, video footage and detailed descriptions of the situation on the ground in Myanmar quickly followed, and were crucial in fleshing out the text story being written in Bangkok. 

That initial work under difficult conditions set the stage for strong, competitive coverage of a challenging and rapidly evolving story that continues through today. And it is that outstanding work that AP honors with the Best of the Week award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP exposes likely superspreader at federal executions

have covered the spread of COVID-19 in prisons, as well as every federal execution of the last year. That reporting and insight led them to the stunning realization that the Trump administration’s unprecedented string of executions likely became a superspreader event at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.Tarm first learned about the case spread when he heard that he had been exposed — although the Bureau of Prisons did not notify him or others attending the executions. Through rigorous, painstaking reporting, the three Michaels discovered that fully 70% of death row inmates had COVID during the 13 executions in six months, but the Bureau of Prisons felt it wasn’t their responsibility to ensure that everyone was told about the spread or whether their employees were following protocols.The trio’s riveting story detailed how cases spread rapidly through the federal prison complex and likely helped spread infections around the country during a critical time in the pandemic as deaths were skyrocketing. The Friday evening scoop lit up social media and was a top news story well into the weekend. https://bit.ly/3qmh0Sh

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Data analysis exposes racial inequity in vaccinations

collaborated on a piece that exposed racial disparities in the early rollout of the vaccine, with African Americans lagging behind the rest of the country in getting shots. The team was initially stymied by a lack of comprehensive national data and scattered figures from state to state and city to city. But they were able to piece together data from 17 states and two cities to make a powerful, data-driven statement on the issue.The story showed that Black Americans were getting shots at rates dramatically below their share of the population, a disturbing development considering how much of a role race has played in disproportionately affecting people of color in the pandemic. The analysis put the AP out front on a critical issue, two days before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out its own analysis of the issue. https://bit.ly/39OwuIQ