Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

"What Can Be Saved?”: The butterfly on a bomb range

for the 10th installment of the “What Can Be Saved?” series, an in-depth package on the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The all-formats team went to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to spend time with researchers working to protect two species: a rare butterfly that receives very little money from the U.S. government, and a woodpecker that gets much more, illustrating inconsistencies in the act. The team produced a visually rich package with stunning images of the creatures and scientists, a compelling minidocumentary that pushed total views or the AP series past 1 million and an interactive that allowed readers to explore which endangered species live in their neighborhoods.https://bit.ly/35PkiTmhttps://bit.ly/2Y3782j

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Florence's environmental toll: coal ash and hog waste

for leading strong AP coverage of the devastation of Hurricane Florence. Biesecker drew on experience to warn readers that the storm would likely cause widespread water pollution from ruptured hog lagoons and swamped coal ash dumps, and scored a series of storm-related scoops. Helber captured iconic images including a widely used aerial shot that earned a rare two-page spread in Time magazine.https://bit.ly/2xMWdwMhttps://bit.ly/2NEn7lrhttps://bit.ly/2zw7WlNhttps://bit.ly/2Og1G9U

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP captures devastation in wake of massive tornado strike in the Mississippi Delta

provided the most comprehensive, on-the-ground coverage of a massive tornado strike in rural Mississippi.Read more.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

As abortion bans take hold, AP details new administration warnings to hospitals to ensure access 

in Washington reported exclusively on the results of a first-of its-kind federal investigation of hospitals that refused to provide an emergency abortion to a woman whose premature labor put her life at risk.Read more.

Best of the States

Freeze frames: Resourceful, creative visuals of old-school ice harvesting

It doesn’t get much cooler than this.

Portland, Maine-based photographer Bob Bukaty’s captivating video and photos bring to life the 120-year-old tradition of ice harvesting, a process that yields ice used for cooling beverages at a New Hampshire summer resort. Using a variety of techniques, equipment, angles, reflections and vantage points, Bukaty took the readers onto the ice on Squam Lake in Holderness, N.H.

Concord correspondent Michael Casey originated the story and wrote the text, while East digital presentation editor Samantha Shotzbarger adapted Casey’s text story into an audio script, voiced by broadcast journalist Warren Levinson.

Bukaty spent most of a frigid day on the lake, using a GoPro camera in a waterproof housing to record the activity under and over the 13-inch-thick ice. He also recorded interviews of group members who used chain saws, ice picks and a massive sled-mounted saw to harvest the blocks of ice from the lake surface.

The striking visuals were the talk of newsrooms in New England and at New York headquarters. By week’s end the story had nearly 30,000 page views, and the video spent three days among AP’s top U.S. newsroom-ready videos – even while competing against State of the Union coverage.

For their story that generated national interest with compelling visuals, the team of Bukaty, Shotzbarger and Casey wins this week’s Best of the States.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP: Chinese company claims it tested vaccine on employees

revealed that in the global race to find a COVID-19 vaccine, SinoPharm, a state-owned Chinese company, claimed it gave experimental shots to top pharma executives and employees, raising ethical concerns. The all-formats coverage examining the ethics of researchers testing vaccines and remedies on themselves was a global effort, with contributions from AP journalists in China, the U.S., Indonesia and Russia. The story appeared on more than 500 online sites, and the package received more than 100,000 page views on AP News. https://bit.ly/3htDPOG

Best of the Week — First Winner

Sweeping AP coverage captures the life, death of Queen Elizabeth II and a nation in mourning

Years of AP preparation and planning paid off when first word came early Thursday evening in London: Queen Elizabeth II had died.

Customers had an AP Flash within a minute, followed by all-formats coverage that was stunning for its speed and scope, from a comprehensive obituary to video and photo retrospectives, profiles of Charles and Camilla, a look at global tributes, a piece on the complex reaction of former British colonies, and much more. Countless AP staffers across bureaus and continents contributed, with London staffers critical to the core coverage.

Performance for the all-formats coverage bore witness to the exceptional work — the main obit alone had 1.1 million pageviews on AP News.

For remarkable journalism still unfolding as the queen’s funeral approaches, the London-based team of Susie Blann, Danica Kirka, Jill Lawless, Sylvia Hui, Samira Becirovic, Brian Friedman, Pete Brown, Naomi Koppel, Anne-Marie Belgrave, Martin Cleaver and Frank Griffiths, and colleagues near and far, receives AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner honors.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP’s Grammys livestream attracts music’s biggest names, large audience

For innovation and connecting with new audiences, the AP Entertainment video team of West Coast Entertainment Video Editor Ryan Pearson, U.S. Entertainment Video Editor Brooke Lefferts, and video producers Gary Hamilton and Leslie Ambriz are the first winners of this week’s Best of the Week award. The team used its contacts at the Recording Academy to develop and successfully execute a hosted 2 ½-hour red carpet livestream from the Grammy Awards that drew in more than a half million viewers, outpacing rival streaming shows. The AP’s new social video team quickly cut and posted videos from the live feed on a variety of social sites, which garnered nearly 1 million views. The Grammys livestream took weeks of planning and technical assistance to pull off and showed that AP can produce a highly technical live event in the entertainment space, and that entertainers will seek out AP’s spot on a bustling carpet. The video recording of the livestream also will greatly improve the AP’s archive of early hip-hop artists who were not covered by AP in their heyday.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Smart prep, quick work allowed AP to beat competition on Proud Boys verdict 

planned extensively, assembled prep and then worked quickly when a jury handed down the verdict in the Proud Boys sedition trial. They beat competitors handily.Read more.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP sportswriter breaks news of Pelé's death

Brazil sportswriter Mauricio Savarese had been preparing for the death of soccer legend Pelé for months, if not years. When it happened, he and his colleagues from all formats delivered a huge win for AP.

Savarese long had been building sources close to Pelé, from among his current and former agents, friends and family of the three-time World Cup winner considered by many as the greatest player ever.

The 82-year-old Pelé was hospitalized in November to treat ailments related to colon cancer. Through sources, Savarese learned that Pelé's condition was critical and that his death could occur at any minute. Colleagues across all formats mobilized to put finishing touches on the preparedness, from the main obituary to stories looking at every aspect of Pelé's life and accomplishments, to video, lives and photo packages.

For extraordinary preparation and source development to beat all competitors on a sports story of major importance globally, Savarese earns Best of the Week – First Winner.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP all-formats team gives voice to protesters globally

covering mass protests against racial injustice overcame the challenges of reporting from fluid, often chaotic scenes, sometimes punctuated by confrontation and violence, to tell the personal stories of individual demonstrators in a rich multimedia package. More than a dozen AP video journalists, reporters and photographers fanned out across the globe to ask protesters their reasons for taking to the streets, providing a diverse, intimate look inside the movement.https://bit.ly/3dvfeqyhttps://bit.ly/3ewaMZR

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Exclusive: Why compensation denied for tortured US veteran

broke the news that a former Iran detainee, Amir Hekmati, a U.S. citizen, Marine and Iraq war veteran whose 2016 release had been widely lauded during the Obama administration, had been denied compensation as a result of suspicions he had gone to Iran to sell secrets, not to visit his grandmother.The exclusive solved the mystery of why the Justice Department had refused to pay Hekmati $20 million in compensation for years of imprisonment that included brutal torture. National security writer Tucker read through hundreds of pages of documents filed in the obscure Court of Federal Claims to piece together the narrative, accompanied by photos and a video from Washington video journalist Nathan Ellgren, which had roughly 2,000 views on YouTube.https://bit.ly/3lJ91wQhttps://bit.ly/3rfjaT6

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AWOL weapons: ’Explosive’ investigation of missing military ordnance

expanded AP’s “AWOL Weapons” investigation, revealing how explosives are lost or stolen from the U.S. armed services, sometimes with deadly consequences.When AP reported in June that the U.S. military couldn’t account for all its firearms, the team knew there was more to uncover. Their latest installment reports that hundreds (if not thousands) of armor-piercing grenades and hundreds of pounds of plastic explosives also vanished.AP’s investigation was built on data the team extracted from the military, and which data editor Myers marshaled for analysis. Investigative reporter LaPorta filed the original Freedom of Information Act request with the Marines, obtaining data that was crucial to framing the scope of the problem, while video journalist Hall and investigative reporter Pritchard used exclusive investigative case files to detail how troops stole plastic explosives. At a major Marine base a sergeant hoarded C4 because he feared Donald Trump would lose; after another insider theft, explosives ended up with high school kids.Hall found a man who survived the explosion of an artillery shell at the Mississippi recycling yard where he worked. His co-worker died. That emotional interview alone drew more than 56,000 Twitter views. Combined with exclusive interrogation footage of Marines, video journalists Serginho Roosblad and Jeannie Ohm wove together a compelling video package using interviews by colleagues Stacey Plaisance and Robert Bumsted. Senior researcher Jennifer Farrar also contributed.The online presentation by Raghu Vadarevu, Natalie Castañeda and Peter Hamlin took the distinctive visual language they previously developed for the series and gave it even more impact. Thanks also to the expert wordsmithing of editor Jerry Schwartz and a well-conceived social media plan by audience engagement specialist Elise Ryan, the package scored over 130,000 views on AP News, more than double other top stories. The story also generated media buzz, including a prominent interview with Hall by CNBC’s Shepard Smith.https://aplink.news/xjghttps://aplink.news/d7yhttps://aplink.video/xnn

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.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP team probes the depth of racism in U.S. military ranks

teamed up to reveal how the roots of racism still run deep in all branches of the U.S. military, and how the Defense Department has done little to determine the scope of extremism in the ranks and take steps to address it.Although military members are often reluctant to speak out, fearful of damage to their careers or other forms of retaliation, this joint effort by AP race and ethnicity and investigative journalists landed searing interviews with active and former troops in nearly every branch of the armed services. They told of being taunted by racial slurs, disrespected by colleagues and discouraged by superiors from openly embracing their cultures.Among their other findings: The military’s judicial system has no explicit category for hate crimes, and the Defense Department still has no way to track the number of troops ousted for extremist views. The Defense Department had three weeks to respond to detailed questions, but failed to do so by the deadline. Once the piece was published and officials saw the depth and breadth of the AP’s reporting the DOD came forward with a 3,000-word statement that was incorporated in the live story.https://bit.ly/3gcO9fdhttps://bit.ly/3gcRXx1

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

City interrupted: A portrait of San Francisco amid the pandemic

offer a unique look at how their city has been dramatically altered amid the coronavirus pandemic, with tech workers fleeing for cheaper climes and businesses standing empty.As San Francisco once again received plaudits for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, getting the green light to open more businesses, the AP pair set out to document the evolution they have been seeing in their city: apartment buildings emptying out, moving trucks lining up and a vacant downtown core. With photos by Noah Berger, the result was a well-balanced portrait of a city interrupted. Many of the young tech workers who have helped remake San Francisco in the last few years have fled, after tech companies said they won’t return until mid-2021. The story combined the voices of some who’ve left and some who’ve stayed, as well as business owners and the views of historians and demographers. https://bit.ly/38cpIw6

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP reveals Sinema taking Wall Street money, killing industry tax

spent months sifting through opaque campaign finance records to learn that Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema received nearly $1 million over the past year — more than double what she had received in her previous 10 years in Congress combined — from private equity professionals, hedge fund managers and venture capitalists as she thwarted efforts to raise their taxes.A day after the legislation passed the Senate with selected tax provisions excised at SInema’s insistence, the AP story drove national political coverage and earned hundreds of thousands of views on AP News.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Sharp questions elicit Haley’s comments on Trump, 2024 run

asked a series of smart, precise questions that helped draw out Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor, on her views of former President Donald Trump and whether she would seek the GOP nomination in 2024 if Trump runs again.Haley hasn't given many interviews recently, but during a visit to an historically black college, Columbia-based reporter Kinnard first asked whether Trump’s recent criticism of Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence hurt the GOP. Haley answered with essentially positive remarks about Trump. Then, when asked if she would support him if he chose to run again in 2024, Haley said yes, and if Trump does run, she said she’d forgo a run of her own. Haley’s comments, elicited by Kinnard, made news and sparked significant conversation on social media. https://bit.ly/3dBkn3z

Best of the Week — First Winner

Months of planning, smart execution result in dominating Oscars coverage

The envelope was opened, “Green Book” was announced as best picture at the 91st Oscars, and entertainment writer Andrew Dalton’s eyes shifted over to Spike Lee.

The director threw up his hands in exasperation and attempted to storm out of the Dolby Theatre before being told to return to his seat. Social media quickly lit up with disdain for the selection by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Dalton’s eyewitness reporting quickly fueled the criticism.

In a packed theater filled with actors and other journalists, Dalton reported what few saw and the television cameras didn’t show, giving the AP exclusive material and driving audiences to its comprehensive Oscars coverage.

Later that night, entertainment producer Mike Cidoni Lennox interviewed “Green Book’s” producers outside the Oscars’ official after-party, helping drive the following day’s coverage of the controversial win.

The reaction to the best picture winner capped dominating all-formats team coverage of the Oscars, the result of months of planning and preparation. AP customers received a steady stream of photos, video and stories, including film writer Jake Coyle’s deadline story which was viewed more than 88,000 times. Coyle had crafted prep for all the likely winners, allowing for fast updates when the envelopes were opened.

For their extensive planning, professional expertise and swift work, Dalton, Coyle and Lennox win AP’s Best of the Week award.

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP exclusive video: Inside Borough Market during London Bridge attack

It began with a photograph showing one of the London Bridge attackers lying dead with a police officer standing over him. The Associated Press had bought it from a freelancer and now wanted to interview him. When it proved difficult to reach him by phone, AP producer Natalia Gohl friended him on Facebook and discovered something even more extraordinary: nine minutes of harrowing video of police hunting for the attackers that he streamed live during the assault.

Gohl’s discovery – the feed was private and had only a few hundred views – and the intense negotiations that followed to obtain the video led to a global exclusive. It is the Beat of the Week.