Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP sources: Ukrainian grain shipments won’t solve food crisis

combined on-the-ground reporting, key analysis from experts and their own subject expertise to shed light on the real-world impact and limitations of renewed Ukrainian grain exports on the global food crisis.The team’s reporting reveals how everyone from Lebanese farmers and Syrian refugees to African aid groups don’t expect the much-publicized initial shipments to solve food insecurity as millions go hungry. The story builds on months of AP coverage showing how the Russia-Ukraine war has worsened the effects of drought, inflation, conflict and other factors in countries gripped by hunger.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP investigation: Police can track your phone with ‘Fog’ tech tool

delivered an all-formats package revealing a startling truth: U.S. law enforcement agencies have used a smartphone tracking tool called “Fog Reveal” — made by a company that has no website or public information — to track people’s movements going back months, if not years, sometimes without search warrants.A tip to AP early this year launched the in-depth investigation of Fog Data Science, a company whose marketing materials said it drew from data generated by thousands of popular apps. Police have used the company’s Fog Reveal to search hundreds of billions of records from some 250 million mobile devices, according to documents reviewed by AP.The exclusive package, with an engaging presentation of illustrations, video and photos, attracted a global audience online, in broadcast and in print.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Source work breaks news of surge in US military sexual assault

tapped into her deep network of Pentagon sources to score a major scoop a full day ahead of the official announcement: Sexual assaults in the military had increased by 13% last year, largely driven by a 26% surge of reported sexual assaults in the Army.Few reporters have broken as many stories on issues affecting the lives of U.S. service members as Baldor, AP’s longtime military affairs reporter. She had been working sources for weeks before the official report on sexual assault, and knew the Army numbers would be bad. Then a source came through with all 26 pages of the Pentagon talking points, giving her virtually everything she needed to break the story. Many news organizations used Baldor’s story or had to cite AP’s reporting in their own reporting.Read more

Best of the Week — First Winner

Months of prep, source work propel AP to dominance on student loan forgiveness

How President Joe Biden would deliver on his campaign promise to forgive student loan debt was one of the most closely watched decisions coming out of the White House this summer.

As anticipation built, and other news organizations couched their reporting in terms of what Biden was “expected to” announce, AP’s Washington bureau worked sources to deliver a massive scoop, confirming and reporting the details 16 hours before Biden stood in front of the cameras.

What followed was no less impressive: All nine of AP’s stories, breaking and enterprise, centered on real people, with on-camera reaction from borrowers, as well as a Q&A updated by search trends, an engaging Instagram reel, a Twitter Spaces session and more. In all, AP’s coverage pulled in 1.1 million views on AP News and 1.2 million interactions on Facebook. For preparation and determined reporting that produced a major scoop, deep coverage and resourceful engagement on an issue affecting millions of Americans, AP is delighted to honor the team of Seung Min Kim, Zeke Miller, Chris Megerian, Michael Balsamo, Collin Binkley, Bianca Vázquez Toness, Adriana Morga, Cora Lewis and Alex Connor as Best of the Week — First Winner.

Best of the Week — First Winner

Lightning-fast coverage by eyewitness Goodman puts AP far ahead on Rushdie attack

Miami-based AP reporter Josh Goodman was in the audience at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York — enjoying his vacation — when a man rushed the stage and stabbed Salman Rushdie, the author who has lived under threat of death since 1989. In the critical moments that followed, Goodman cemented a huge competitive advantage for AP on one of the biggest global news stories of the week.

Amid chaos in the hall, Goodman shot smartphone images of people attending to Rushdie as he lay on the stage, then quickly sent photos and dictated details to AP. Some 20 minutes after the attack, AP had an alert and photos in the hands of members and customers.

Goodman continued reporting for all formats while colleagues from New York to Iran pitched in on the story. No news organization could catch up in those initial hours.

For extraordinary work across formats by an accomplished and experienced journalist who understood the needs of AP clients and how to handle breaking news when it erupted in front of him, Goodman earns AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP: DEA appeared to intervene after off-duty shooting by agent

investigated a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent’s deadly shooting of a mentally ill neighbor in Mississippi, revealing new details that raise questions about why the agent never faced trial on a murder charge — and the role played by DEA brass to quickly insert themselves into the case, blocking local authorities from talking to the agent.Mustian exclusively obtained hundreds of pages of investigative documents and transcripts, and spent days on the ground interviewing people with knowledge of the case for a story that questions the justification for the shooting, how Agent Harold Duane Poole avoided trial and whether the DEA overreached to protect one of its own amid a flurry of misconduct cases in the agency.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Revealing look at Canada’s troubled euthanasia system

reported extensively on Canada’s euthanasia laws, which are some of the world’s most permissive and have spurred criticism from the United Nations and even the pope. AP medical writer Cheng noticed a pattern after several troubling incidents in the country; she found Canada has fewer safeguards in place than many other countries. Terminal illness is not a requirement for euthanasia, and treatment of the disabled is a particular outlier.The piece includes families’ experiences: Detroit-based video journalist Householder crossed the border to Ontario, telling the story of a woman who was shocked that her father was accorded euthanasia within days of a fall, and Cheng reported on a man whose application for euthanasia listed just one condition: hearing loss.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP reports on consequences of shrinking US police ranks

spent weeks finding and reporting on real people across the country affected by the trickle-down effects of a shortage of police offers.Instead of focusing solely on the police, whose ranks are thinning because of burnout and other issues, Portland, Oregon-Based Flaccus, working with photographer Mitchelldyer, gave voice to the parents of a cold-case victim whose case was pushed aside because of rising gun homicides.In Philadelphia, Lauer and photographer Rourke showed how complaints have swelled over abandoned cars and other quality-of-life issues in low-income areas. And in Los Angeles, Dazio, video journalist Garcia and photographer Dovarganes found the problem has deeply impacted police homeless outreach.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP pair raises awareness of overlooked Atlanta Race Massacre

delivered a distinctive enterprise package, shining light on the little-recognized 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre which involved the killings of at least 25 Black people and the destruction of Black-owned businesses.Warren, an Atlanta desk editor who also writes and edits for the AP’s Race and Ethnicity Team, has a passion and eye for history, particularly overlooked events related to race. Through diligent source work and reporting — and despite the misgivings of some Atlantans — he and multiformat colleague Sharon Johnson developed an engaging all-formats package raising awareness of the massacre and making it relevant to the current racial reckoning in the U.S.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Enterprising all-formats coverage of deadly Kentucky floods

AP journalists from Kentucky and beyond responded to June 28’s torrential rainfall and historic flooding with a remarkable run of enterprise work spun from the breaking news, telling the deeper stories behind the tragedy in poignant and authoritative text, photos and video.From the impact on a region already struggling with the coal industry’s rapid decline to intimate stories of families coping with profound loss, the AP led with sweeping, insightful coverage, offering detail and context that can only come from familiarity with the landscape and its people.Read more

Best of the Week — First Winner

Months of planning, preparation put AP out front with unmatched coverage of SCOTUS abortion ruling

With extensive preparation ahead of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the AP moved at lightning speed, covering the historic ruling comprehensively in all formats. Months of meticulous planning and prep work paid off when the court’s opinion came down Friday morning, enabling AP to get the word out ahead of the competition and then deploy teams of journalists to capture reaction and the broader ramifications of the ruling.

Countless AP journalists in Washington and around the country delivered spot and enterprise coverage in all formats, including live and edited video, insightful analysis, striking photos, state-by-state updates and the stories of people on both sides of the abortion issue.

For exemplifying the news cooperative at its best, covering a pivotal moment with far-reaching consequences for American society, AP recognizes journalists Mark Sherman, Jessica Gresko, Jacquelyn Martin, Steve Helber, Gemunu Amarasinghe, J. Scott Applewhite, Andrew Harnik, Rick Gentilo, Dan Huff, Nathan Ellgren, Mike Pesoli, Kimberlee Kruesi, Lindsay Whitehurst, John Hanna, Matt Sedensky, David Goldman, Rogelio Solis, Rick Bowmer, Eric Gay, Alex Connor, Kevin Vineys and colleagues throughout the organization with Best of the Week — First Winner honors.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Rare access to barrier islands reveals loss of pelican habitat

reported from the ground, the water and from the air to document the impact of climate change and land loss on the vanishing island breeding grounds of Louisiana’s brown pelicans, as well as the people and other wildlife that depend on this coastal ecosystem.After obtaining permission to visit the off-limits barrier islands, the all-formats trio revealed in words and striking visuals the effects of erosion and sea level rise on the coastal habitat and Louisiana’s saltwater marshes, and what remains to be lost: Louisiana’s state bird, the brown pelican, brought back over decades from the edge of extinction.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Stunning, intimate package captures Afghan addicts’ lives

used determination and empathy to gain access to the world of Afghanistan‘s hard-drug street addicts. The result is an unflinching but sensitive photo package that takes readers inside the addicts’ bleak lives. His images, raw, yet layered and nuanced — are at once intimate and riveting.Noroozi spent hours at locations in Kabul where the addicts gather — on a hillside and under a bridge. The addicts gradually accepted his presence and he was able to follow the grueling flow of their daily lives, apparent in his images. He also photographed am government raid, the Taliban allowing him access to their drug rehabilitation center where he wound up making striking images on multiple trips.Complementing the haunting photos, Noroozi’s personal notes of his visits were so compelling they were fashioned into a first-person account, drawing readers directly into the experience.Read more

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP investigation finds Ukrainian refugees forcibly evacuated, subjected to abuse in Russia

The idea for this deeply reported story emerged months ago when AP noticed Ukrainian refugees being sent to Russia — then disappearing.

The process was painstaking, but AP spoke with 36 Ukrainians, most of them from the devastated city of Mariupol, all of whom were sent to Russia. Some had made their way to other countries, but almost a dozen were still in Russia, an important find. The refugees’ personal stories humanized the larger findings of the investigation: Ukrainian civilians have indeed been forced into Russia, subjected along the way to human rights abuses, from interrogation to being yanked aside and never seen again.

The story was widely used and cited by other news organizations, and a week after it ran it was still near the top for AP reader engagement.

For teamwork across borders that resulted in the most extensive and revealing investigation yet into the forcible transfers of Ukrainian refugees, the team of Lori Hinnant, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Cara Anna, Sara El Deeb and colleagues in Russia and Georgia earns AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

Best of the Week — First Winner

A ‘graveyard’: Distinctive images capture the impact of major drought on Nevada’s Lake Mead

Las Vegas-based photographer John Locher has seen no shortage of drought in his years covering the Southwest desert. But this year felt different, particularly when it came to Lake Mead, a popular tourist destination and important source of water, where levels have plummeted.

Over the course of several weeks, he made repeat visits to the lake, talking to people on beached boats, exploring different areas and running down visual leads he found on social media.

Little by little, a theme began to emerge: The receding body of water had effectively exposed a graveyard, not just of sunken boats, but also of wildlife. Locher captured this in a unique visual essay used widely and prominently by AP members and customers across the country.

For persistence, creativity and shoe-leather reporting to reveal in striking images the precipitous decline of Lake Mead, Locher earns AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Teamwork delivers standout AP coverage of July 4 mass shooting

mobilized on July Fourth to deliver fast, multiformat coverage of the mass shooting at a parade in Highland Park, Illinois, that ultimately resulted in seven deaths and dozens wounded. Local and regional staffers responded quickly with all-formats coverage in the Chicago suburb while colleagues across the U.S. and into Mexico stepped in to assist with reporting, writing and editing.Monday’s efforts laid the groundwork for coverage in the days that followed, including more breaking news updates, victim profiles, a narrative on how the events unfolded, explainers, an investigative piece on how the suspect was able to get weapons despite Illinois’ red flag law and more.The mainbar story trended near the top on AP platforms for much of the week and made the front page of newspapers across the country.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP duo wins over Santorini’s cloistered nuns, tells their stories

gained unprecedented access to a convent housing 13 cloistered Catholic nuns on the trendy Greek island of Santorini, a favorite of tourists. The nuns devote their lives to praying for those visitors and for the world — their near-constant prayer deemed necessary to support more publicly engaged ministries.The AP pair won the trust of the nuns, who opened the doors to areas of the convent off-limits to visitors while sharing what calls them to this sequestered life of devotion to God. The result is a distinctive and revealing package of Dell’Orto’s illuminating text and Giannakouris’ equally compelling photography.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

The erosion of hope: Kathy Gannon on 35 years in Afghanistan

is an AP icon — she has had an unsurpassed view on the ground in Afghanistan for the past 35 years. So when an editor suggested she write a first-person piece reflecting on her decades of coverage, she stepped up with a vivid and intimate retrospective.The story, full of personal anecdotes, brings Afghanistan's recent history to light, tracking the country’s slow descent into despair. The pacing is such that the piece reads like a narrative, leading with the 2014 shooting that seriously injured Gannon and killed a beloved colleague, then taking the reader effortlessly through the country’s conflicts and shifting regimes. Like everything she writes, the piece focuses squarely on the people of Afghanistan, conveying Gannon’s respect for their kindness and resilience, even as hope fades.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Resourceful teamwork across borders on Oslo mass shooting

teamed up to provide fast and effective coverage of a June 25 mass shooting during an LGBTQ Pride festival in Oslo, Norway, that left two people dead and more than 20 wounded.When the news broke in the middle of the night that a gunman had opened fire in the Norwegian capital, quick decision-making, a rapid response and even a bit of luck enabled AP to produce a fast, comprehensive all-formats report that was widely used by clients worldwide.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Only on AP: Tournament challenges racism, French social model

inspired anti-racism advocates and young people in neglected quarters of France by shining a global spotlight on the National Neighborhoods Cup, an unusual soccer tournament aimed at celebrating the diversity of immigrants and casting a positive light on working-class areas with large immigrant populations that some politicians and commentators scapegoat as breeding grounds for crime, riots and Islamic extremism.AP was the only international media to cover the tournament, and the only media to put it into the perspective of France’s strained ideal of a colorblind republic that doesn’t identify people by race or ethnic background. The story was widely used in U.K. and U.S. media, prompted discussion online and earned praise from tournament participants.Read more