tell a very New Orleans story of loss and struggle in the coronavirus outbreak, looking through the lens of the storied Krewe of Zulu with words and images.https://bit.ly/34C4Z0Ehttps://bit.ly/3bdDgWz
used census data from the 100 largest U.S. cities as a starting point for a series of vivid portraits of the workers living and dying on the front lines of the pandemic – most are women, people of color and more likely to be immigrants. https://bit.ly/2W8DHfX
AP teams in Europe and the U.S. put together packages looking separately at the issues and concerns facing nursing homes during the coronavirus outbreak.
The European team produced three all-formats exclusives taking a searing look behind the scenes of nursing homes in Britain in France, exposing the pain that residents, families and medical staff are suffering as COVID-19 cuts a deadly path through homes for the elderly, killing thousands.https://bit.ly/3d0c3Yahttps://bit.ly/2VMG2Nc
In the U.S., New York staffers exposed the lack of coronavirus testing in U.S. nursing homes with two strong pieces, one finding only a third of such facilities have access to tests despite more than 13,000 deaths, and another on an outbreak in Brooklyn in which none of the 55 residents listed as dying from COVID-19 had ever been tested.https://bit.ly/3d18LE0https://bit.ly/2KMU630
for a character-driven story on how first responders return to work after recovering from COVID-19. They return with trepidation about surviving an “invisible bullet” of the disease. https://bit.ly/2zkV0kLhttps://bit.ly/2SKEYYy
With coronavirus infection and death rates mounting, hospitals in the New York City area imposed strict guidelines allowing only a small handful of media outlets limited access. After weeks of reaching out to hospitals, St. Joseph’s in Yonkers agreed to give the AP access to its emergency room and screening tent.
But only one journalist would be allowed into the hospital. Versatile New York staff photographer John Minchillo was an easy choice.
Once inside in full protective gear, Minchillo connected with the hospital staff, who also granted access to the intensive care unit. He made the most of the next four hours, working in all formats to capture the mundane and the extreme, including the dramatic moments when a COVID-19 patient in cardiac arrest was saved. Turned around virtually overnight, Minchillo’s all-formats package was heavily played by major media outlets.
For his powerful, comprehensive all-formats storytelling that takes us inside medical workers’ daily fight save lives against the coronavirus, John Minchillo wins AP’s Best of States Award.
teamed up to provide the first public look at large publicly traded companies getting money set aside by Congress to help small businesses. https://bit.ly/2VKZtGe
produced a comprehensive, multiformat Only on AP package marking 10 years since the fatal Deepwater Horizon explosion and massive oil spill. Three pieces ran over three days: investigative work that showed continued and increasing drilling risks, a personal look at how life has changed along the coast, and the lasting environmental impacts a decade after the disaster. https://apnews.com/DeepwaterHorizonSpill
used the power of the AP to highlight an almost unfathomable fact – the federal government and many states have not publicly tracked coronavirus infections and deaths in individual nursing homes – and their story was followed very quickly by policy changes. A day after their story appeared, New York announced it would indeed release a list of individual nursing homes and how many deaths each one had. And less than a week later, the federal government announced it would begin the same process.https://bit.ly/2VRcP2Khttps://bit.ly/2yAhgaf
What and when did authorities in China know about the coronavirus’ initial spread and did they react fast enough? Those have become burning questions as COVID-19 tears a deadly and destructive path across the globe.
Among the toughest to answer, too.
The Associated Press cracked open China’s lockdown on information with an exclusive story – based on internal documents and expert testimony – revealing that top officials in Beijing knew about a likely pandemic, but held off on warning the public for at least six days – while tens of thousands attended a banquet in Wuhan and millions more travelled for Lunar New Year festivities.
The story’s byline – “By The Associated Press” – testified to the risks run by the reporter who secured and developed the major scoop.
For breaking through China’s tightly policed walls of information control about the critical first days of the pandemic, with a scoop secured in one of the world’s toughest media environments, the unnamed but not unsung AP reporter is this week’s Best of the Week laureate.
delivered exclusive coverage of the end of the lockdown in Wuhan. Live video, including footage of a surprise midnight light show, was accompanied by still images both before and after China lifted the lockdown in the city where the pandemic began.https://bit.ly/3crWIiRhttps://bit.ly/2Vy1dBjhttps://bit.ly/3bdTwXMhttps://bit.ly/2XCNtYM
secured exclusive access to a nationwide raid by the Drug Enforcement Administration targeting a Mexican drug cartel, resulting in top-notch video and remarkable images at the scene east of Los Angeles, and at the DEA command center in Virginia.https://bit.ly/393d4Mohttps://bit.ly/2xdMrqT
When a South Carolina Army veteran died last month, his family decided to invite The Associated Press to take one of the few spots the funeral home would allow for people at the service. His loved ones knew this funeral and their mourning would look different from the usual rituals, and they wanted to share that with other families faced with grief in the coronavirus outbreak.
North Carolina-based journalist Sarah Blake Morgan took on the delicate task. She shot photos and video from an appropriate social distance, not only to stay safe but out of respect for the family. In her images and words, she painted a picture of a ritual that once brought people comfort but now brings new tension and challenges.
For her sensitive work delivering a moving Only on AP package on a human angle of the virus outbreak, Morgan wins this week’s Best of the States award.
produced a creative and innovative package that gave young people around the world an opportunity to tell their own stories during the pandemic. Using contacts inside and outside the AP, Irvine asked people, ages 16 to 24, to talk about their experiences and film a bit about their lives. Her story, with the video compilation as the centerpiece, revealed the concerns the subjects have in common, as well as their unique circumstances.https://bit.ly/2JRBkHwhttps://bit.ly/2xeKvif
across the United States harnessed the AP’s national, multi-format footprint to produce an exclusive series of evocative personal vignettes portraying the struggle people faced to make their first rent payment since the economic collapse. The enterprise package received strong play and unusually long engagement times with readers. https://bit.ly/2xVvzG3https://bit.ly/2JLZdjF
“No.”
“Never.”
“Not possible.”
“Can't be done.”
Photographer Felipe Dana and video journalist Renata Brito were told in no uncertain terms that Spanish hospitals and their intensive care units in particular would not allow access to journalists reporting on the coronavirus pandemic. And in New York, the all-formats team of John Minchillo, Robert Bumsted and Jake Seiner was given largely the same answer when they tried to get into a funeral home to document the surge of victims literally piling up.
Neither team took no for an answer. Both teams produced haunting images and text documenting the stark reality wrought by the pandemic.
The tenacity, skill and bravery on display from both teams was the difference between getting the story out to the world and revealing the human cost of the crisis – or not. It’s the latest example of AP journalists proving that “No. Never. Not Possible,” does not apply to them. And it is why Dana, Brito, Minchillo, Bumsted and Seiner share AP’s Best of the Week award.
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
With a powerful and evocative photo gallery, AP journalists in Italy captured the heroism of 16 Italian medical personnel on the front lines of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
Photo editor Alberto Pellaschiar proposed the idea, and hospitals – reassured by AP’s reputation for professionalism – permitted photographers Antonio Calanni and Luca Bruno and chief photo editor Domenico Stinellis to make photos of the doctors and nurses during breaks or as they finished their shifts.
The intimate portraits conveyed the fatigue and determination of the men and women working round-the-clock to save lives. Chief correspondent Nicole Winfield studied the portraits and interviewed some of the subjects to put their struggle into words.
The impact was tremendous – the stark, understated images and accompanying story riveted audiences around the globe.
For conceiving and executing a brilliant series of images that captures in human terms the battle against the disease, Pellaschiar, Stinellis, Calanni, Bruno and Winfield win AP’s Best of the Week.
continued to provide exclusive, heart-wrenching visuals and text from the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy, including powerful interviews with doctors and families of victims and exclusive access to hospitals.https://bit.ly/3bteZLThttps://bit.ly/2UGJHus
secured rare access to accompany paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division on a South American training exercise in partnership with Colombia, producing a compelling narrative in text, photos and video as the troops simulated the taking of an airbase.https://bit.ly/3dAdZaXhttps://bit.ly/3bn2Eci
As sweeping restrictions and lockdown measures rolled out across the world in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, AP’s team of staff and freelancers in Italy set an example for how to produce compelling and competitive journalism in all formats despite major challenges affecting them both professionally and personally, including the very real risk of being placed in self-quarantine for covering stories in risk zones.
Three weeks into the Italian outbreak, AP produced some of the strongest coverage yet including multiple exclusives and beats across formats. That work included: How the northern town of Codogno greatly reduced the spread of the virus, a first-person account of the lockdown’s impact on families, overwhelmed doctors drawing parallels to war-time triage, rioting at Italian prisons, residents showing solidarity from their balconies, and more.
AP’s coverage throughout the crisis in Italy has consistently won heavy play online and in print.
For resourceful, dedicated and inspired journalism under unusually demanding circumstances, the Rome and Milan bureaus receive AP’s Best of the Week award.
