Best of the AP

Best of the Week - First Winner April 19, 2024

AP hosts digital-first experience of total solar eclipse with livestream, blog and scenes from Mexico to Maine

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In a large-scale, innovative and comprehensive work of journalism that required months of planning and precise execution, a core team from Health and Science conceived a digital-first experience of the total solar eclipse with a livestream, live blog and scenes along the path of totality from Mexico to Maine. Executing the plan successfully required coordination that extended across formats, countries and departments.

Coverage of the eclipse began in February with weekly all-formats storytelling by the Health and Science team, with contributions from Global Beats and U.S. News teams. Work also began to develop a livestream eclipse show, featuring Health and Science audience and social lead Kyle Viterbo; video journalists Mary Conlon and Laura Bargfeld; and aerospace writer Marcia Dunn, along with engineer Hugo Blanco.

In the control room, Global Beats video news editor Kathy Young, Entertainment video editor Brooke Lefferts and U.S. assignment manager Robert Bumsted worked with video operations manager Derek Danilko and broadcast engineer Rob Weisenfeld to produce the six-hour livestream. They worked with video journalists who went live along the path, including Alexis Triboulard, Lekan Oyekanmi, Nick Ingram, Teresa Crawford, Patrick Orsagos and David Martin, while video curation editor Francisco Guzman kept real-time track of audience engagement.

A live blog launched at 5:30 a.m. EDT with posts prepared by Health and Science editor Stephanie Nano, and deputy editor Jon Poet, live blog editor Emily Olson and digital editor Sophia Eppolito kept it running with fresh dispatches and visuals over 12 hours from journalists in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.

Unique and quickly filed images of the event were captured photojournalists Fernando Llano, Eric Gay, Mat Otero, Tony Gutierrez, Jeff Roberson, Michael Conroy, Carolyn Kaster, Jon Cherry, Matt Rourke and Bob Bukaty, with coordination by chief photographer Julio Cortez.

For conceiving a digital-first approach that caught the attention of our customers and our digital audience, the Health and Science team of Viterbo, Conlon, Bargfeld, Dunn and Nano are this week’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

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Best of the Week - Second Winner April 19, 2024

Australia staffers, backed by regional talent across Asia, dominate coverage on two Sydney stabbings

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A man with a knife in Sydney kills six people. Hours later, two clerics at a church in the same city are stabbed. In each case, AP was right there to tell the world even as events were still unfolding.

More than ever, AP’s strongest performances come from collaboration across geographies — a combination of people on the ground reporting as events unfold, and their colleagues elsewhere making sure the news gets out in a fast and comprehensive manner. The coverage of back-to-back stabbing attacks in Australia is a textbook example of such teamwork.

As soon as word came of the first attack at a busy Sydney mall on a quiet Saturday, photographer Rick Rycroft rushed to the scene, taking dramatic photos and video that showed weeping parents and children rushing away from the carnage. AP was up with live video at least an hour before Reuters, thanks to senior producer Moussa Moussa quickly turning around local feeds.

The Tokyo-based news director for Australia, Foster Klug filed alerts well ahead of AP’s competition, providing continuing urgent updates as officials detailed in live briefings the horror of the attack: A man with a knife had killed six people before being shot.

Asia deputy news director for photos and storytelling Yirmiyan Arthur quickly filed Rycroft’s powerful images. Freelance video journalist Albert Lecoanat went up with live video, and reporter Keiran Smith produced stories that looked at the victims, the killer and the people caught up in the attack.

That wasn’t all, though. For Sydney, more violence was yet to come.

Just 48 hours later, photographer Mark Baker was one of the first photographers on the scene when a 16-year-old boy attacked two clerics at a church in what police said was an act of terrorism. Baker’s photographs, taken as he faced threats of violence and attempts to take his equipment, showed the aftermath of a full-scale riot by furious churchgoers. Reporter Rod McGuirk and Klug handled urgent stories that — once again — put AP ahead.

The stories and images produced by AP were used and cited by customers across the world and led digital searches in Asia.

For quick response on the ground by smart reporters and regional collaboration across oceans and departments, Rick Rycroft, Moussa Moussa, Albert Lecoanet, Mark Baker, Rod McGuirk, Kieran Smith, Yirmiyan Arthur and Foster Klug are this week’s Best of the Week — Second Winner.

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