Holly Meyer and the AP “Nones” team, in a package encompassing a dozen countries on five continents, provided an unprecedented global look at the surge of religiously unaffiliated people, as well as the risks faced by nonbelievers in places where such an outlook remains taboo. The team took an in-depth look the dramatic increase in the number of people who are nonbelievers or unaffiliated with any organized religion. The package included reports from countries where this trend is strong: the U.S., Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, Israel and Japan. It also looked at regions where openly being a nonbeliever is rare, even dangerous. The eight main stories were illustrated with powerful photos, and five of them were accompanied by videos.
The U.S. segment, written by Peter Smith with visuals by Jessie Wardarski, had more than 150,000 page views on APNews, and the overall play reflected the project’s global scope, with news outlets carrying various parts of the package on their sites.