A rich multiformat package kicks off AP’s series on small businesses trying to navigate the pandemic economy worldwide.
Small businesses – critical to the health of the global economy – are clearly being hit hard by the pandemic. Over the next six months to a year, Associated Press journalists in a dozen locations around the world will chronicle their fight for survival, in an ambitious series called “Small Business Struggles.”
The first piece, anchored by New York-based national writer Adam Geller with a rich digital presentation by Phoenix-based top stories video editor Samantha Shotzbarger, got the project off to an incredible start.
The story brought readers into the agonizing decisions business owners face as they try to stay afloat: The owner of a second-floor sari shop in New York City’s Jackson Heights trying to find a way to make his $6,000 monthly rent. A New Orleans art gallery that reopened as a takeout eatery. A pizzeria owner in Lebanon grappling not only with the devastation of the pandemic but crime and the country’s economic collapse as well.
Editors rarely share in Best of the Week honors, but a large part of what made the story so compelling was the creative digital presentation by Shotzbarger. Her aim was to give readers a sense of what these small businesses looked like as they reopened their doors. She found interesting but simple moments in the video collected by the team and turned them into loops. One, showing a bouncer awaiting patrons outside of a bar with a "Now Open" sign, led the piece and immediately set the tone for viewers. Shotzbarger used the strong photos as "chapter heads" to help readers immediately recognize points of transition.
A little bit more about the project: AP journalists around the world have identified streets where they will focus their reporting efforts and three or four businesses they will follow. The stakes are high: The U.N. estimates that businesses with fewer than 250 workers account for two-thirds of employment globally. Whether small businesses survive will help determine not only how quickly economies recover but also how the fabric of communities changes.
AP journalists around the world will each report on the fortunes of three or four businesses during the series.
Many AP reporters, photographers and video journalists contributed, starting with corrrespondent Lori Hinnant in Paris who came up with the idea for the initial story. Other contributors were:
— Video journalist Marshall Ritzel and photo editor Mark Lennihan in New York
— Reporter Gene Johnson and photographer Ted S. Warren in Tenino, Washington
— Reporter Sarah El Deeb, senior producer Bassam Hatoum and photo editor Hussein Malla in Beirut
— Business writer Yuri Kageyama, chief photographer Eugene Hoshiko and video journalist Emily Wang in Tokyo
— Administrative corrrespondent Rebecca Santana and photographer Gerald Herbert in New Orleans
— Photographer Francois Mori in Paris
— Reporter Mohamed Ibrahim and photographer Jim Mone in Minneapolis
— News editor Sylvia Hui, and photographers Matt Dunham and Alberto Pezzali in London
— Video journalist Srdjan Nedeljkovic, senior producer Theodora Tongas, Southeast Europe Bureau Chief Elena Becatoros and chief photographer Thanassis Stavrakis in Athens
Shao Lin Tia serves diners at a table outside Ginza, the pan-Asian restaurant she runs with her husband on Rue Daguerre, a classic market street in Paris, July 9, 2020. Under French rules, grocery stores, butchers, wine shops and cheese shops were considered essential during the nationwide confinement to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Restaurants, even for takeout, were not. The rules have gradually relaxed, but business remains slow.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Shao Lin Tia prepares a plate of sushi at Ginza, the pan-Asian restaurant she runs with her husband on Rue Daguerre, a classic market street in Paris, July 5, 2020. Under French rules, grocery stores, butchers, wine shops and cheese shops were considered essential during the nationwide confinement to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Restaurants, even for takeout, were not. The rules have gradually relaxed, first for takeout only, then for a few outdoor tables, but sales remain low and Tia worries that the hardest is yet to come.
AP Photo / Francois Mori
Zakaria Masud, left, works in his Queens travel agency in New York's Jackson Heights neighborhood after it reopened during the coronavirus pandemic, June 18, 2020. “I think we're losing 50 percent of the revenue. But I think we can survive,” said Masud.
AP Photo / Mark Lennihan
Zakaria Masud, center, steps out his Queens travel agency in New York's Jackson Heights neighborhood after it reopened during the coronavirus pandemic, June 18, 2020. Masud said, “I was excited after a long time that we were opening the store. At the same time, I had panic, a little scared that people are going to walk in, am I going to get sick?”
AP Photo / Mark Lennihan
Chander Shekhar, co-owner of Shopno Fashion in New York’s Jackson Heights neighborhood, poses for a portrait on June 22, 2020, the first day of New York City's Phase 2 reopening plan. This neighborhood was hit particularly hard by COVID-19, and shops were opening for the first time in more than three months. Shekhar is reluctant to complain, but the night before reopening the stress and uncertainty of what lay ahead had woken him nine times.
AP Photo / Marshall Ritzel
Stephanie Skoglund touches up paint on a giant chalk board where guests can leave messages for the bride and groom at The Vault, the wedding and event center she owns in Tenino, Wash., July 1, 2020. The board still bears the names – Kyzer and Sandra – of the last couple to be married at the venue in March before the coronavirus outbreak forced the venue to close.
AP Photo / Ted S. Warren
DJ Johnson poses for a portrait in New Orleans, June 25, 2020, inside his new NOLA Art Bar, which opened just before the coronavirus pandemic. In mid-March, the city ordered all bars to close. Six weeks later, he adapted to rules that allowed food service businesses to stay open for takeout. The first day he made $35. “It’s discouraging. But the only thing that kept me going is, there is no quit,” he said. As the rules are gradually relaxed, customers have begun to trickle in.
AP Photo / Gerald Herbert
Patrons relax over cocktails in the velvet chairs of DJ Johnson’s NOLA Art Bar in New Orleans, June 23, 2020. In mid-March, the city ordered all bars to close to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. On June 13, Johnson was able to start seating diners inside the gallery at half capacity. He makes constant rounds of the room, distributing hand sanitizer. Gradually, customers are beginning to trickle in. “It’s discouraging. But the only thing that kept me going is, there is no quit,” he said.
AP Photo / Gerald Herbert
Workers remove the sign at Ali Barbarawi’s Chicago Lake Family Dental practice in Minneapolis, June 23, 2020. The practice was forced to close by the coronavirus pandemic, then destroyed in the unrest following the killing of George Floyd. The destruction is a loss not just for him, but for his staff and patients, he said, and insurance will cover, at most, half of what he’ll need to rebuild.
AP Photo / Jim Mone
Dentist Ali Barbarawi poses at his Chicago Lake Family Dental practice in Minneapolis, June 23, 2020. Barbarawi was forced to close by the coronavirus pandemic, then his office was destroyed in the unrest following the killing of George Floyd. The destruction is a loss not just for him, but for his staff and patients, he said. Insurance will cover, at most, half of what he’ll need to rebuild, so on the advice of colleagues, he started a GoFundMe campaign to help bridge the gap.
AP Photo / Jim Mone
Customers buy bread in Beirut, June 18, 2020, at the Bread Republic bakery owned by Walid Ataya, who also has a restaurant, pizzeria, wine room and flower shop on a strategic intersection leading into an upscale neighborhood of the city. Ataya had to close all but the bakery and flower shop for nearly three months during Lebanon’s strict early lockdown imposed in March.
AP Photo / Hussein Malla
Customers have drinks in Beirut, June 18, 2020, outside a restaurant owned by Walid Ataya, who also has a bakery, pizzeria, wine room and flower shop on a strategic intersection leading into one of the city’s upscale neighborhoods. Ataya had to close all but the bakery and flower shop for nearly three months during Lebanon’s strict early lockdown imposed in March.
AP Photo / Hussein Malla
Shinichiro Hirano walks through his Sun Flower Shop in Tokyo, June 22, 2020. He posted a sign reminding customers to keep a safe distance from each other to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
AP Photo / Eugene Hoshiko
Tom, shop manager of Broadway Bookshop, hands off a book order to a customer outside the shop in Broadway Market, Hackney, in east London, June 18, 2020. Before the pandemic, shoppers would pack the tidy shop on weekends, often with more often waiting outside, drawn by the store’s personalized service. The business has now started a website and converted to pickup and delivery to cope with the lockdown measures due to the coronavirus outbreak.
AP Photo / Alberto Pezzali
Chris Hulme in New York and Samira Becirovic in London steered the video, while New York’s Aaron Jackson coordinated the photos and Jerry Schwartz edited the text piece.
In addition to the digital presentation, the initial package included four customer video edits, a public-facing video and a strong package of photos. The package led the AP News site with more than 55,000 page views and was used by digital, print and video customers around the world.
For pulling together the opening salvo in this immersive and significant global project, Geller and Shotzbarger share the AP’s Best of the Week.
For AP’s complete coverage of the coronavirus:
– AP’s hub for comprehensive all-formats coverage of the virus outbreak.
– Understanding the Outbreak: stories explaining the new coronavirus.
– One Good Thing: stories of hope and humanity amid the crisis.
