reported a strong inequality-themed story on how government agencies were failing to publicize coronavirus health alerts in Spanish. The story focused on how Arizona, with 30% of its residents Hispanic, has no information on its state health webpage in Spanish and the health department was still translating coronavirus updates. https://bit.ly/2Jk6rv6
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
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.
On April 6 – the day when the COVID-19 death toll in New York City exceeded the toll of the Sept. 11 attacks – a team of AP journalists fanned out to tell the stories of average New Yorkers navigating the pandemic.
From the bodega owner whose remaining customers are often funeral home workers, to a paramedic worried about the way the onslaught of cases was eating away at him and other first responders, the stories provided a vivid account of a city bent, but not broken, by the virus. “The Fight for New York” was a testament to the AP at its finest: smart planning and collaboration leading to 11 impactful text and video stories, more than two dozen photos and nine social edits, all delivered to customers with remarkable speed.
The package immediately resonated with readers, viewers and customers, winning strong play on the websites of most major news organizations.
For extraordinary teamwork, planning and execution, the team of journalists behind “The Fight for New York” wins AP’s Best of the Week award.
examined weeks of federal procurement records, including a thorough review of federal purchasing contracts, to create a detailed timeline of events related to the spread of COVID-19 and the Trump administration’s response to the outbreak. The records show that the U.S. wasted two months when it could have been preparing to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Federal agencies largely waited until mid-March – when hospitals in several states were already treating thousands of infected patients – to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers.
When AP White House reporter Kevin Freking attempted to ask Trump about the issue at Sunday’s briefing, the president angrily cut off the question, helping drive readers to Biesecker’s story, which was widely shared on social media.https://bit.ly/3aVhmavhttps://bit.ly/3aZdLby
dissected one of President Donald Trump’s daily coronavirus briefings, capturing the curious theater playing out on TV against the backdrop of the pandemic’s surging death toll. https://bit.ly/2JPk0CS
found an unconventional angle on the coronavirus, revealing that the crews aboard nuclear-armed submarines are almost certainly being kept in the dark about the extent of the coronavirus pandemic while at sea, deliberately shielded from morale-busting bad news. Leicester, reporting in text and video, tracked down and interviewed a former chief medical officer who had served aboard a French sub, as well the former commander of the French ballistic submarine fleet who told AP: “Since (a submariner) cannot do anything, better that he know nothing.” https://bit.ly/2waaXcyhttps://bit.ly/3dODoNV
created a detailed timeline and cohesive narrative to reveal just what went wrong with the coronavirus tests that led to the crippled U.S. response to the outbreak. The team traced the U.S. testing response since the first cases emerged in China, including the changing government directives about who could be tested and the daily totals for how many patients had been tested during the critical month of February. Other news organizations were days behind AP’s reporting. https://bit.ly/2UQZKWy
and a network of statehouse reporters anticipated the flood of jobless claims that were inundating state unemployment offices, aggressively reporting on astronomical increases in unemployment, including examples like Pennsylvania’s 70,000 new claims in one day. This did not sit well with the Labor Department, which a day later issued a memo to state unemployment offices saying they should not release their jobless numbers unilaterally, but rather wait for the weekly federal report to be released. https://bit.ly/33MUt6w
delivered a comprehensive national look the chaotic rollout of drive-thru coronavirus testing centers. Her reporting revealed that despite promises of widespread tresting, the drive-thru sites that were popping up in state parks, parking lots and outside hospitals were often plagued with long lines, inconsistencies, delays and shortages. https://bit.ly/2QR9Fdv
for anchoring expansive and informative coverage of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial – just the third such trial in American history. Coverage of the trial in all formats showcased the AP’s unmatched ability to meet the call of history with sharp storytelling, delivered with speed but hanging on substance. The AP’s mainbar provided a definitive account of the trial for more than three weeks running. And as lawmakers weighed the ultimate judgment on a president, journalists in Washington carefully reported the arguments in real-time while churning out informative sidebars, fact-checks and explanatory guides. The final story alone, on the Senate vote to acquit Trump, appeared on more than 200 newspaper front pages across the country, and hundreds of websites. https://bit.ly/2UQ9EcK
The world had been waiting for this moment: the start of a clinical study searching for a vaccine for the new coronavirus – but no one knew when exactly the first shots would be given. AP reporters in Washington, D.C., learned where and when it would take place, laying the groundwork for an all-formats team to witness the start of the experiment in Seattle.
The result: AP was the only news organization present, sending updates in real time as the first participants received an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. The newsroom at AP’s New York headquarters erupted in cheers when the exclusive crossed the wire; text, photos and video swept play worldwide.
For ensuring AP was the only news organization in the room at a critical juncture of the coronavirus pandemic response, and for delivering distinctive journalism to customers worldwide, the team of Lauran Neergaard, Ted Warren, Carla K. Johnson, Michael Ciaglo, Federica Narancio and Marshall Ritzel wins AP’s Best of the Week award.
scrambled to confirm a source’s weekend tip that President Donald Trump was extending stringent European travel restrictions to the U.K. and Ireland amid the coronavirus crisis. They had the alert and story out a full hour ahead of the president’s news conference, leaving other news organizations to widely credit AP. https://bit.ly/2xptEt4https://bit.ly/2xsbVk
convinced David Nahmad, a publicity-shy billionaire art dealer who has accumulated over decades the world’s largest private collection of works by Pablo Picasso, to throw open his luxury Monaco home for an exclusive and rare all-formats interview about why he is selling one of his paintings for charity. Nahmad had spoken briefly to a French radio station about raffling of “Nature Morte,” painted by Picasso in 1921, but Leicester proposed that for international audiences, the billionaire should speak exclusively to AP, surrounded by some of his art collection, estimated to be worth $3 billion. The story managed to elbow its way into the news agenda dominated by virus coverage, rising to No. 8 on the list of most-viewed AP stories.https://bit.ly/3dcJoQihttps://bit.ly/2Uo8T8Zhttps://bit.ly/2WyX2Yp
raced to cover rapidly developing stories as dozens of sports leagues and federations around the globe made decisions affecting players, fans and entire seasons in reaction to the spread of the coronavirus.https://bit.ly/2IXA9Wehttps://bit.ly/3a1Vg5Khttps://bit.ly/2UoUAkehttps://bit.ly/3923lWVhttps://bit.ly/2U37Xru
noticed that the NRA planned to auction off firearms during a fundraiser at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, but she knew that the Nashville, Tennessee, museum didn't allow weapons inside. So she reached out to the museum, the NRA, country artists and more for comment. Soon after Hall raised the question of the apparent violation of museum policy, a spokesperson confirmed to her that the April event will not take place at the site. Other news outlets had to cite AP’s reporting. https://bit.ly/2vSOAbz
On Super Tuesday afternoon, AP’s Stephen Ohlemacher and Emily Swanson were locked away in a conference room – isolated from their colleagues in the Washington bureau – reviewing incoming results from AP VoteCast. AP’s survey – developed to be more accurate than traditional exit polling – was already revealing what was about to happen on the biggest night of the Democratic presidential primary campaign.
The VoteCast data revealed trends in absentee voting and shifting preferences as Democratic candidates dropped out of the race, giving AP the evidence it needed to call California for Bernie Sanders as the state’s polls closed at 11:00 Eastern. News outlets relying on exit polls would not make that call for more than a week.
Meanwhile, Seth Borenstein was crunching the numbers on the all-important delegate count, a task that required days of painstaking analysis of incomplete data to reach this conclusion: Joe Biden won more delegates on Super Tuesday than did Sanders.
Like the Caliofornia race call, news of Biden’s delegate victory rocketed around the world.
For completing in-depth, accurate analysis of election data on deadline, enabling AP to tell the complete story of Super Tuesday before all others, Swanson, Ohlemacher and Borenstein win AP’s Best of the Week award.
Coverage by an Associated Press team dominated the closely watched Harvey Weinstein verdict, delivering wins in all formats with speed, depth and exclusivity. Superior planning and preparation, and outstanding coordination on the day of the verdict, gave AP the edge.
Highlights included the breaking news story moving on the wire within a minute of the verdict, exclusive video of Weinstein leaving the courthouse by ambulance, and an enterprising behind-the-scenes photo essay on the women journalists covering the trial that earned remarkable play.
For quick, comprehensive and distinctive coverage that kept the AP ahead on one of the biggest trials of the year so far, Mary Altaffer, Michael R. Sisak, Tom Hays, David Martin, Ted Shaffrey, Robert Bumsted, John Minchillo, Craig Ruttle and Sophie Rosenbaum win AP’s Best of the Week award.
After Maggie Michael, Nariman El-Mofty and Maad al-Zekri followed Ethiopian migrants across Djibouti and Yemen, they worked with the digital storytelling desk to deliver an all-formats package that hooked readers from the start, weaving together the differing fates of two migrants – one who succeeded in his epic walk to Saudi Arabia, the other who failed, left stranded and hopeless along the way.
The story demonstrated the scope of the AP’s reach, covering a little-noticed but rapidly growing route for migrants, exploring what motivates these men and women to risk their lives, and making readers care about people to whom they would not otherwise have been introduced.
The package, produced and packaged by Natalie Castañeda and Peter Hamlin, showcased how AP’s formats can work seamlessly together – from reporting on the ground to digital production – with dazzling results.
For stunningly beautiful work that took AP’s audience on the migrants’ journey from the sun-blasted wastelands of Djibouti to the shores of the Gulf of Aden and beyond, Michael, El-Mofty, al-Zekri, Castañeda and Hamlin win AP’s Best of the Week honors.
for providing comprehensive coverage of the NBA All-Star weekend, including cell phone video he shot of former President Barack Obama making a surprise appearance at an event. The footage was one of several stories that Reynolds produced that made AP the go-to news source during the weekend, including stories on Kobe Bryant tributes, the league’s plans to play in China despite the COVID-19 outbreak, and a story with Steve Reed revisiting the 1988 dunk contest through interviews with Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins.https://bit.ly/2HFAo7Mhttps://bit.ly/327QWyKhttps://bit.ly/2vJIwld
