for edging out all competitors, including the league’s TV partner, in reporting that the new WNBA commissioner would be Cathy Engelbert, the CEO of Deloitte US. https://bit.ly/2VVNnfn
In an exclusive interview with AP, a high-ranking Hamas political official for the first time suggested that the militant group would put down its weapons with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, acknowledging that a two-state solution could be possible even if temporarily.
The interview, which came at a crucial time in Gaza ceasefire negotiations, was the result of persistence by AP staff and collaboration between the Beirut and Istanbul teams.
Having dealt with Hamas officials in Beirut regularly on stories before and after Oct. 7, Lebanon/Syria/Iraq news director Abby Sewell had requested an interview with one of Hamas’ senior officials, Moussa Abu Marzouk, and was told it would be granted and would take place in Istanbul.
While she was awaiting confirmation of the date, Hamas’ top political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, showed up in Turkey and met with the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
At that point, Istanbul-based photographer Khalil Hamra, originally from Gaza, suggested using his contacts to aim for the highest-ranking possible interview.
For persistence and collaboration to win a scoop on one of the world’s most pressing stories, Sewell, Hamra and Guzel are Best of the Week — First Winner.
Brazil sportswriter Mauricio Savarese had been preparing for the death of soccer legend Pelé for months, if not years. When it happened, he and his colleagues from all formats delivered a huge win for AP.
Savarese long had been building sources close to Pelé, from among his current and former agents, friends and family of the three-time World Cup winner considered by many as the greatest player ever.
The 82-year-old Pelé was hospitalized in November to treat ailments related to colon cancer. Through sources, Savarese learned that Pelé's condition was critical and that his death could occur at any minute. Colleagues across all formats mobilized to put finishing touches on the preparedness, from the main obituary to stories looking at every aspect of Pelé's life and accomplishments, to video, lives and photo packages.
For extraordinary preparation and source development to beat all competitors on a sports story of major importance globally, Savarese earns Best of the Week – First Winner.
landed an exclusive all-formats interview with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry just weeks before a critical global climate conference, breaking news on the administration’s limited expectations for the meeting and Kerry’s concerns about the stalled infrastructure bill. The piece showcased ”The AP Interview,” a series of sit-downs with key newsmakers.Knickmeyer had long sought a Kerry interview and the timing was ideal in the run-up to the Glasgow, Scotland, conference, but the Washington reporter was promised only 15 minutes with the former secretary of state. Knowing Kerry’s decades of experience in fielding reporters’ questions and managing interviews, Knickmeyer prepared extensively to ensure a revealing interview. She honed a handful of concise, targeted, hard-to-deflect questions after consulting with outside climate experts and AP colleagues.
When the time came, Knickmeyer pressed Kerry for specific answers, politely but repeatedly interrupting when he sought to move the conversation to more upbeat topics. In the short interview she asked variations of the question on Biden’s climate legislation four times. Kerry’s comments represented a swing to a more realistic assessment of the trouble facing Biden’s signature climate initiatives, and the global impact.The resulting all-formats package — including video shot by Huff and edited by Brown — had impact, with many news outlets using AP’s content directly, and others citing AP’s work in their own reporting. Washington reporters pressed administration officials on Kerry’s comments to AP for days.https://aplink.news/t4ahttps://aplink.video/63u
had been asking around for weeks about President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for attorney general. They pressed their sources inside the transition once it became clear that the decision came down to just a few names.Finally, Tucker scored — a transition source gave AP the entire slate of nominees for the department, and not just the stunning choice of Merrick Garland, the former candidate for the Supreme Court who had been spurned by Republicans during the Obama administration. Also included were names for the second in command and leaders of top offices at the Department of Justice.Tucker had prepped for this and gathered his material while Balsamo checked in with another source and came back with confirmation. They swiftly filed a news alert and story, beating major news outlets by a solid half-hour. This all came two hours before the Capitol siege. The pair’s story was still picked up 580 times with some 200,000 pageviews — especially strong considering the U.S. Capitol was ransacked by rioters the same day. https://bit.ly/2XCjOOe
The on-the-record accounts from two census workers were stunning: Under pressure from supervisors amid the Trump administration’s push to bring the census to an end, they were encouraged to falsify records in the 2020 headcount.
Whom did they reveal this to? Not surprisingly, they spoke to Mike Schneider, AP’s authority on the census, who leveraged months of source development and reporting to break the story. Posted just an hour before the presidential race was called for former Vice President Joe Biden, the story still broke through with strong play and reader engagement.
For keeping the AP ahead in a critical coverage area with a terrific scoop, Schneider wins this week’s Best of the States award.
teamed up to break news on the violent Portland, Oregon, protests that ended with the death of a man affiliated with Patriot Prayer, a Northwest right-wing organization. In the confusion after the fatal shooting it wasn't immediately clear what had happened or who the dead person was. Through sourcing and determined reporting, Flaccus was able to confirm key details and provide context on the ongoing violence. Using Bronstein’s photos and eyewitness account, Flaccus confirmed the victim was wearing a Patriot Prayer hat, then used her sourcing within that organization to be first to accurately report the victim’s name, while other media initially misidentified him.https://bit.ly/2Z1pfYdhttps://bit.ly/34YKi1a
for filing with speed and accuracy in all formats as news broke at a relentless pace over the course of days: from a deadly funeral stampede for Gen. Qassem Soleimani, to the retaliatory Iranian missile attacks on U.S. targets, to Iran’s downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane that killed all 176 people on board, and the demonstrations that followed.https://bit.ly/2TCZSd4https://bit.ly/2TzSzTBhttps://bit.ly/2NOzY2H
for his piece on the state of student journalism around the country and how the problems of the newspaper industry are being mirrored on campuses across the country. But after some brutal years, there are signs of life: Enrollment in journalism programs is up. https://bit.ly/32Oyo5o
for a thoroughly reported, engaging narrative with compelling visuals, telling the story of a small New England newspaper that is doing all it can to buck the downsizing trend at a time when local journalism is dying across the country. The pair spent the better part of a week in western Massachusetts talking to the owners, editors and reporters at The Berkshire Eagle, and most importantly the townspeople the newspaper is trying to lure back. What emerged was an all-formats package that readers couldn’t resist.https://bit.ly/2MZXoE5https://bit.ly/2Ycfh3H
For Tallahassee reporter Gary Fineout, the first day of the legislative session began with the usual pomp and circumstance, and Gov. Rick Scott’s annual state of the state speech. From there it took a quick turn.
A source in Scott’s office called Fineout at around 4 p.m. to say that Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke would be flying in from Atlanta to meet with the governor – and both would be willing to talk to the media afterward. Fineout immediately emailed Matthew Daly in Washington, who covers Interior, and who had tapped into a key political problem in the Trump administration' recently announced offshore drilling plan: Republican governors were not on board.
At around 6 p.m. Zinke and Scott strode through Tallahassee’s small airport and dropped the news that Florida would be removed from the administration’s oil drilling plan. Before the two officials stopped talking, Fineout emailed Daly in D.C. to let him know the news that would soon create a torrent of criticism from other states that oppose the oil drilling plan. By the time Fineout got back to his car in the parking lot, Daly was moving the news alert.
Daly and Fineout’s model of teamwork put AP so far ahead some in the competition didn’t bother to catch up. For their initiative and coordinated effort to give AP an important beat, Fineout and Daly share this week’s Best of the States prize.
for a series of scoops in the days before the start of the 2018 World Cup competition – including word that U.S. star Hope Solo was discouraging the choice of the United States as a host for the 2026 World Cup. Solo has been critical of U.S. soccer governance. Harris also snagged an exclusive interview with Liverpool’s American owner John Henry, and he told how MasterCard was forced, after a public backlash, to scrap a charity initiative to donate 10,000 meals to hungry children for every goal scored by Latin American idols Lionel Messi and Neymar.https://bit.ly/2JYdQ4Shttps://bit.ly/2t9akul
for their work that allowed AP to break news and dominate coverage with its rapid, all-format coverage of the shooting deaths of five people in Louisiana – including the first interview with a family member of the dead, Facebook postings from the shooter, and an all-formats interview with two people who lived with two of those killed. https://bit.ly/2BamasD
Twenty years have passed since the Columbine high school massacre, which was, to many people, the beginning of school shootings as we know them. In those years, life has changed: Mass shootings happen again and again, schoolchildren participate in lockdowns instead of fire drills, and many reflect on the moment in time when two young men took 13 lives with them on their suicidal quest.
AP was uniquely positioned to cover the two decades since the massacre, with journalists who were there, those who cover the Colorado community every day, and experts in polling, education and guns. Stories by Denver reporter Kathleen Foody and videojournalist Peter Banda led a deep all-formats package by dozens of journalists across the AP telling not just of the carnage but of those who survived it, their struggle, and the future.
But all the planning couldn't prepare anyone for this spot development: Early in the week, Sol Pais, a young Florida woman, prompted panic over a possible attack at Columbine, later taking her own life near the Colorado school. Miami reporter Kelli Kennedy tracked down a good friend of Pais who not only filled in personal details about her in an exclusive interview, but supplied photos of Pais and cast doubt on the official narrative about her friend.
The overarching theme of the spot and enterprise coverage focused on the short and long-term mental health issues from school shootings. The result was a unique, meaningful package that received impressive play nationally – online and in print. The video was among the top-used AP videos of the week.
For their work spearheading the package, and breaking news, Foody, Banda and Kennedy win this week’s Best of the States.
for breaking news that Adele and her husband Simon Konecki have separated, getting the first statement from the singer’s rep about the split. https://bit.ly/2UCZGr9
for chasing official confirmation that Congo’s current Ebola outbreak passed 1,000 deaths. AP had anticipated the grim milestone and when Mwanamilongo confirmed the news with the minister of health, we were first with text, photos and a graphic. https://bit.ly/2Y74Gqe
for breaking the news that the head of the long-troubled federal prison system was being removed in the wake of Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide. Balsamo had been pressing sources at the Justice Department about the fate of Hugh Hurwitz, the acting director of the Bureau of Prisons. Two guards and the warden had been disciplined, but nothing was said about the senior leadership. Balsamo worked up prep in case Hurwitz resigned or was fired.
Nine days after Epstein’s death, Balsamo heard from a source who had just met with Attorney General William Barr: Barr was going to remove Hurwitz. The decision was extremely sensitive; even Hurwitz didn't know yet. Balsamo had just a brief window to break the news before it became public, but because he had the prep in place, he was able to move quickly. AP had a 650-word story before any other outlet had even sent an alert. Hurwitz’s removal quickly became one of the top stories of the day, with Balsamo’s story receiving wide play, even by some news organizations with their own Justice Department reporters. https://bit.ly/2NBYC7k
Immigration and Homeland Security reporter Colleen Long’s ears perked up in early October when she heard agency officials mention “CODIS” as they briefed reporters on the likelihood they would expand their practice of collecting DNA from migrants.
CODIS, she knew from experience, was an FBI database usually associated with violent crimes, so Long was surprised to hear of its use in connection with migrants whose only crime was crossing the border illegally. Long followed up with detailed questions at the briefing but didn’t get answers, so she kept pressing officials.
Her persistence was rewarded with an advance briefing on the new rule, and additional details about how the DNA policy would be implemented. Long’s story moved hours ahead of the official announcement, becoming one of the most-read stories of the day.
For making the early connection to the policy implications of the DNA database, then pressing the issue with officials until she had the exclusive details, Long earns this week’s Best of the States award.
reported exclusively that Grammy-winning country superstar Kacey Musgraves and her musician-husband, Ruston Kelly, had filed for divorce. AP customers ran with the full story, while competitors had to cite AP in their own reporting. https://bit.ly/2O6bjq0
had been maneuvering for an interview with Carlos Ghosn ever since the automotive executive escaped Japan inside a box 17 months ago. The senior producer, based in Paris, plied sources from Ghosn’s days at the top of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, and insisted that AP wanted a no-holds-barred, in-person session with the man once feted as a superstar and whose career came crashing down when he was arrested in Japan on accusations of financial misconduct. Schaeffer’s tenacity and insistence on high standards won AP an exceptional three-language interview that was Ghosn’s most comprehensive to date, making headlines on three continents on the eve of his latest legal drama. This was also a pioneering effort in AP’s Newsmaker Interview initiative and a stellar example of teamwork across AP’s formats and departments, including all the others in the room for the interview: regional news director Zeina Karam, photographer Hussein Malla, video journalist Alex Turnbull, senior producer Fay Abuelgasim and camera operator Fadi Tawil.https://bit.ly/34Md7g7https://bit.ly/2SY1MGY
