AP scored an exclusive interview with a candidate in the state’s high-stakes legislative elections who was revealed during the campaign to have once live-streamed sex videos with her husband on a pornographic website.Read more
Contact-building and planning paid off for the AP at the unveiling of the top-secret design of the Paris Olympic medals.Read more
An all-formats approach to a story about a rescued baby fox put the AP ahead and led to a talker win, with notable usage by customers around the world.Read more
AP exclusively obtained video and interviews from residents who saw fallen power lines igniting flames in the earliest moments of the Maui wildfires.Read more
Creative, visual storytelling by AP made an instant talker out of the Hawaii Legislature’s effort to claim the universal “hang loose” sign an official state gesture — and in the process, captured Hawaii residents’ deep connection to the so-called “shaka.”Read more
Years of experience covering demonstrations in France were vital in the AP’s ability to outshine its competitors in coverage of a demonstration against antisemitism that drew more than 100,000 people.Read more
centered LGBTQ+ students and kids of color in a powerful story to show the impact of GOP efforts against inclusion at schools.Read more.
used impeccable planning to achieve the live shot and photos that gave the world a historic look as Argentines erupted in joy after their team’s World Cup final win.
A weeklong preparation of navigating a never-ending barrage of obstacles to ensure a live-shot position with connectivity that would overcome a raft of challenges paid off as we offered a live with an elevated view over the gathered multitudes in central Buenos Aires.Read more.
conducted a gripping video interview with a 33-year-old Italian lawyer and water polo player about the man’s battle with COVID-19, underscoring how the disease not only hits the elderly or those with underlying health conditions. Santalucia interviewed Andrea Napoli by Skype and filmed him waving from a hotel that is being used for patients recovering from the coronavirus. The video and a text story by Milan correspondent Colleen Barry won widespread play. https://bit.ly/39x7cLX
for their work on Hurricane Michael. Holed-up in a collapsing hotel, dealing with a smashed vehicle and dodging downed trees to get to Mexico Beach for the first comprehensive, all-format look at a shredded town after Hurricane Michael. The video of the hotel awning collapse was a live exclusive for AP. The mainbar netted more than 600 source matches, and a sidebar added nearly 700 more. The top 10 AP images the next day were all from the storm, many from Mexico Beach. The photos, nearly all of them from Mexico Beach, ran on at least 75 front pages. One of our video pieces scored 72 channels with 273 hits and was unmatched by the competition. https://bit.ly/2yxKtinhttps://bit.ly/2S0gGYD
for fast work that made AP first to confirm, report on and shoot video and photos on the day that Rio councilwoman Marielle Franco, an outsider politician and fierce critic of police brutality, was gunned down. https://yhoo.it/2HUgO5S
for providing the first live video and first photos from the scene of a rescue helicopter crash that killed six people in Italy, two hours ahead of Reuters. http://fxn.ws/2k3Wi9H
for finding a vantage point that gave them a clear view of the damaged side of the destroyer USS Fitzgerald as it was being pulled into port after colliding with a freighter. http://apne.ws/2sHA3cE
for their exclusive interview with IOC President Thomas Bach, who revealed he had met Kim Jong Un and that Kim had endorsed North Korean participation in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. https://bit.ly/2HcU0iA
for their all-formats coverage of a grenade attack aimed at Ethiopia’s new prime minister during a massive rally. https://bit.ly/2lIhXVd
The disappearance and killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey has been one of the biggest, and most competitive, stories in the world this month, and the AP’s team in Turkey dominated coverage last week with its reporting surrounding a crime scene search of the consulate.
When crime scene investigators arrived at the consulate without notice on Oct. 15, Turkey news editor Ayse Wieting already had one camera fixed on the consulate door for 24-hour live coverage and quickly scrambled two more cameras with LiveU units. The AP beat the competition by more than two hours with the first edit of investigators entering the consulate.
On the text side, Ankara correspondent Suzan Fraser later got a high-level Turkish source to confirm that the consulate search turned up “evidence” that Khashoggi was killed there, a scoop that was cited across international and Turkish media.
And AP’s photo coverage of the story was also dominant, complementing the outstanding the video and text efforts. Photographers worked hard to find new angles on a visually challenging story, where often the only visible activity was people walking in and out of a building.
For impressive efforts and ingenuity in covering a worldwide top story of paramount importance to AP members and customers in all formats, the AP team earns Best of the Week honors.
From the first blasts, gunfire and panicked phone calls, the Nairobi bureau immediately assumed a terror attack, aggressively mobilizing resources in a textbook example of cross-format journalism that put the AP ahead on every element of a major breaking story: an extremist attack on a hotel complex that left 21 people dead, in addition to the five attackers.
Senior video producer Khaled Kazziha called freelance video journalist Joe Mwihia, who slipped into the scene with Kenyan special forces, filming exclusive footage as officers cleared rooms, guns drawn, and ran down rumors of a grenade. His three hours of exclusive reporting earned him the byline on the text story based on his detailed contributions.
Meanwhile, staff video journalist Josphat Kasire rushed to the scene with a LiveU and quickly scooped competitors with the first live shot showing burning cars, injured people, survivors fleeing in droves and witness accounts. His compelling footage became the heart of the text story, and the live images continued overnight as the attack unfolded.
Contributing to the outstanding video coverage were freelance cameraman Idi Ali Juma, freelance camera assistant Moses Ndungu and freelance producers Geoffrey Kaviti and Desmond Tiro.
“Sheer bravery,” international editor Ian Phillips said later of the team’s work.
Around the same time, Nairobi photographers Ben Curtis and Khalil Senosi captured gripping images of people fleeing the mayhem and security forces aiming weapons at attackers, among their standout photos.
The play for the photos, video and text was off the charts, including major client Sky News running live and packaged videos on a day busy with Brexit news.
For their formidable breaking news coverage across all formats, the Nairobi team of Kazziha, Curtis, Senosi, Mwihia, Kasire, Ali Juma, Tiro, Kavita and Ndungu wins AP’s Best of the Week.
Special Citation
The Best of the AP committee has also awarded a special lifetime citation to Libya freelance photographer and video journalist Mohamed Ben Khalifa, who died Jan. 19 when the military convoy with which he was traveling came under missile fire in southern Tripoli.
The committee honored Ben Khalifa for the body of his work, carried out with integrity and courage for The Associated Press and his other media clients.
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.
for their resolve and on-the-ground savvy, overcoming communications and access challenges to capture stunning images – stills and video – of the devastation following the crash of a Boeing 737 Max 8 jet that killed all 157 people on board in Hejere, Ethiopia.https://bit.ly/2FifRVmhttps://bit.ly/2umvyFY
for providing comprehensive coverage of the NBA All-Star weekend, including cell phone video he shot of former President Barack Obama making a surprise appearance at an event. The footage was one of several stories that Reynolds produced that made AP the go-to news source during the weekend, including stories on Kobe Bryant tributes, the league’s plans to play in China despite the COVID-19 outbreak, and a story with Steve Reed revisiting the 1988 dunk contest through interviews with Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins.https://bit.ly/2HFAo7Mhttps://bit.ly/327QWyKhttps://bit.ly/2vJIwld
