Dec. 18, 2020

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP finds rural hospital running out of staff during surge

acted on a source’s tip to reveal the pandemic’s toll on rural Midwestern hospitals during the current case surge. She told the story of a tiny Kansas hospital, full of patients and struggling to function as much of its own staff was sidelined with COVID-19. At one point a doctor and physician assistant tested positive on the same day, briefly leaving the hospital without anyone who could write prescriptions or oversee patient care. Hollingsworth spoke with hospital staff, including the radiology technician who slept in an RV in the parking lot for more than a week because his co-workers were out sick and there was no one else available to take X-rays.A medical staffing agency saw the story and responded by offering to send nurses to the town to help out, a sign of the power and reach of the AP. https://bit.ly/34gVpl1

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Aug. 27, 2021

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Bad reactions: AP finds US civility plunging over COVID restrictions

harnessed AP’s national reach to report on the fast-declining civility over mask requirements and pandemic precautions.An Alabama man drove to Missouri to serve citizen arrest papers on a hospital administrator over his insistence that people get vaccinated. Protesters beamed strobe lights into the condo building of Hawaii’s lieutenant governor and blanketed his neighborhood with anti-semitic posters to protest new restrictions amid a record surge in hospitalizations. A California parent punched a teacher in the face over mask requirements and county commissioners in Kansas were compared to the Taliban and Nazis at a mask meeting that went off the rails.With these examples rising to the surface, the reporting team assembled a smart, authoritative piece on how public discourse in America has plunged to new depths. The story led member sites, made newspaper front pages in 10 different states and was among the most-read stories on AP News over the weekend. AP Deputy Managing Editor Noreen Gillespie called it a shining example of illustrating “how a theme is rippling across the country.” https://aplink.news/bbp

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Nov. 19, 2021

Best of the Week — First Winner

At the intersection of population growth and extreme heat, AP interactive brings global climate data to life

The team of data journalist Nicky Forster, science writer Drew Costley and storytelling producer Peter Hamlin, joined by AP colleagues, worked for months on an immersive interactive that takes readers across the globe, visualizing how and where exposure to extreme heat is escalating and its impact on population centers.

After securing early access to historical data tracking both population growth and a specific metric that gauges the impact of extreme temperatures on human health, AP’s analysis found that between 1983 and 2016, exposure to dangerous heat tripled, and now affects about a quarter of the world’s population.

The team spent weeks building an engaging presentation with 3D graphics and illustrations that brought the piece to life, drawing in readers. The interactive marked the latest example of AP’s new storytelling formats and stood out from the deluge of coverage during the United Nations climate summit in Scotland.

For their resourcefulness, creativity and dedication in helping AP’s audience understand the far-ranging impact of global warming in a new way, the team of Forster, Costley and Hamlin is this week’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

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Nov. 12, 2021

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Only on AP: The path to extremism in Pakistan — and the US

demonstrated the power of AP’s global footprint and expertise, digging into two case studies of radicalized individuals — one in the United States, seen prominently in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and one in Pakistan. The trio’s reporting revealed some striking commonalities between the Islamic extremism so feared by many Americans and the homegrown U.S. movements that led to the insurrection.Reporting on their subjects through family members, Kansas City, Missouri-based Hollingsworth interviewed the brother of Jan. 6 suspect Doug Jensen three times over the course of months, while Gannon, who has covered the process of radicalization for years as news director for Afghanistan and Pakistan, plumbed sources she developed with the late Anja Niedringhaus more than a decade ago. She delved into the life of Wahab, a young Pakistani man, from the vantage point of his uncle.National security reporter Tucker, meanwhile, reviewed documents, did source reporting and consulted experts to weave it all together, fragment by fragment.The result was “Paths to Radicalization,” an Only on AP story exploring each man’s pivot into extremism. Despite obvious differences between the two men, the piece reveals common elements, not only in how people absorb extremist ideology but also in how they feed off grievances and mobilize to action. Extremist thinking is not necessarily an “other” thing; it can happen anywhere through similar means.The story remained at the top of AP News for nearly an entire day with high reader engagement while receiving play from major news outlets, online and in print, as well as on social media. Tucker also discussed the piece in an interview with San Francisco’s KCBS.https://aplink.news/l41https://omny.fm/shows/kcbsam-o...

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Aug. 09, 2019

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Resourceful all-formats teamwork on remote Greenland ice melt

for impressive all-formats coverage of Greenland’s heat wave and the ensuing ice melt. From the outset the story was a logistical challenge, 2,000 miles from the nearest bureau, with few sources for photos or video of the heat wave’s impact. Initial attempts to secure images from a scientist on the island were unsuccessful due to poor internet, so staffers brainstormed other options. A London staffer was able to get recent family photos showing melt water lakes, elevating the story and winning play, but the team did not stop there. Overnight they were able to establish a connection with the research scientist, who shared exclusive photos and video of the melting ice sheet, including the rampaging melt water, in addition to an on-camera interview.https://bit.ly/2Kw8rR9https://bit.ly/2MHjfhU

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May 20, 2022

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Deep reporting tells of Black Kansas teen’s in-custody death

were the first to piece together video, records and interviews for an in-depth, multiformat story outlining how a Black teen in Kansas ended up in foster care and died at a juvenile intake center after being restrained on his stomach for 40 minutes.AP had written previously about the death of Cedric “C.J.” Lofton, but Kansas City reporter Hollingsworth sensed a backstory waiting to be told. Her exhaustive reporting and Sheridan’s revealing video tell the story of a troubled youth and the disturbing confluence of events and decisions leading to his death.Read more

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July 24, 2020

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Tough calls for US families as school year looms

turned a spotlight on the stress parents are feeling as they consider the reopening of schools and weigh competing concerns – the health of their children, the burden of extended quarantine, the need to have children cared for as parents get back to work. Exploring the impact of these factors on working parents, Loller sorted through the nuanced implications for parents from New York to Texas as they react to the pivotal decisions being made by elected officials about when kids should return to school. https://bit.ly/2ZSnqO3

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Oct. 15, 2021

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Doctors tell AP of rampant misinformation among unvaccinated

tapped into her network of sourcing among doctors around the country to deliver an all-formats story that offered new perspective on the rampant misinformation that they're experiencing in dealing with unvaccinated patients during the delta surge of COVID-19.Hollingsworth, based in Kansas City, Missouri, conducted interviews with six doctors, each giving new examples of the misinformation that has underpinned the recent surge. One doctor, for example, said he had resorted to showing vaccine-hesitant patients a Twinkie ingredient label to make the point that it’s hard for anyone to fully understand every item that goes into federally approved food and drugs. Hollingsworth did all the interviews on Zoom and teamed up with AP Central Region video journalist Carrie Antlfinger on packaged video pieces. She also shared sound clips with the audio and digital teams; those were embedded in the piece.The story generated strong play and huge reader engagement numbers. It was a shining example of how deep sourcing on a newsworthy topic can lead to a sharply focused, well-executed story.https://aplink.news/iubhttps://aplink.video/4n0

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May 14, 2021

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Nationwide reporting effort exposes dwindling vaccine demand

led a nationwide reporting effort revealing that COVID-19 vaccine demand is plummeting.Each week, states are told how many vaccine doses are available to them, and they in turn decide how many they want to order from the federal supply. Reporters started hearing anecdotal evidence of states ordering paltry amounts of vaccine in recent weeks, at a time when the Biden administration wants to get 70% of adult Americans vaccinated by July 4.So AP reporters across the country asked governors how many vaccines they were ordering last week. Some states, like Iowa, Kansas and Wisconsin, decided to order a fraction of their allocation, as low as 8% of what’s available to them. Other locations, like New York City, Colorado and Maryland, were asking for their full allocation. Hollingsworth, based in Kansas City, Missouri, and Richmond, in Madison, Wisconsin, fleshed out the numbers with examples of widespread vaccine hesitancy around the country, and what states were doing to entice more shots.The result was a smart mainbar on Saturday that connected the dots in a way that only the AP can, with its 50-statehouse presence. The piece also set the stage for a broader, more advanced data collection effort that the AP will build on in the coming weeks. https://aplink.news/i67

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Feb. 23, 2024

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP responds when gunfire erupts at Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade

Kansas City’s AP staff was just wrapping up what was supposed to be a day of fun as the city was celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win with a parade and rally. They were regrouping in the office — and some had family nearby at the parade — when shots rang out.

Photographer Charlie Riedel and video journalist Nick Ingram rushed out the door, while correspondent Heather Hollingsworth tried to confirm what happened. After she alerted that shots had been fired — the first of many alerts on this story — she also raced outside, and days of exhaustive coverage began.

Riedel and stringers sent in photos showing the reality of the shooting’s aftermath — people on stretchers, bloodied and shocked. Ingram went live, interviewing people who were stunned by the violence and gathering background video, or b-roll. Hollingsworth sought out witnesses, while other AP staffers helped from afar, including Oklahoma City correspondent Sean Murphy, who jumped in to help stitch the story together as it was developing.

AP’s coverage was a collaboration across teams and formats for the next several days.

For leaping into a fast-breaking story, supported by colleagues around the United States, Ingram, Hollingsworth and Riedel earn Best of the Week — First Winner.

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Dec. 31, 2021

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Intimate package looks at families upended by caregiving in pandemic

teamed up for an powerful, bittersweet portrait of a family struggling to cope with an unexpected and unrelenting responsibility faced by thousands during the pandemic: caregiving for an elderly parent in the wake of nursing homes ravaged by COVID.For this final installment of the 2021 series “Scars of COVID,” the pair spent days in Rotterdam Junction, N.Y., with Susan Ryder and her mother, Betty Bednarowski — who had been in desperate condition when the family brought her home from a nursing facility in lockdown. National writer Geller and photographer Wong sensitively chronicled the family’s exhausting routine of daily care as well as the uplifting moments of shared time with 79-year-old Betty.Wong also recorded audio and worked with producer Samantha Shotzbarger on an evocative audio piece that brought another layer of humanity to the journalism. And Shotzbarger brought all the elements together in compelling online presentation.Discharges from nursing homes are up during the pandemic, and Geller sought out other families that have made the decision to take on caregiving. In most cases the story was the same: Happy moments tinged with incredible stress for adult children whose lives were upended by the hours of care their elderly loved ones require.https://aplink.news/k3xhttps://aplink.photos/dsf

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Jan. 29, 2021

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Up close, personal reporting on the US political divide

wanted to explore how people on different sides of the political gulf in the U.S. view the election and transfer of power.They found two Maryland residents who represent polar political opposites: one a Trump Republican who has two TVs tuned to conservative media; the other a staunch Democrat eager for the inauguration of Joe Biden. Both are members of a program designed to bridge the nation’s extraordinary political divide.The AP team followed as the pair navigated the turbulent transition between administrations, careful to report fairly while not making their divergent positions equivalent — the journalists made it clear that the facts establish Biden’s win and do not support claims of a stolen election. The all-formats package attracted attention and yes, sparked heated discussion online. https://bit.ly/3ckElj2https://bit.ly/2Yn9r19

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Dec. 04, 2020

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Across the US, AP covers a Thanksgiving Day like no other

teamed up on Thanksgiving Day to deliver a standout package that showed the various ways that Americans observed the holiday in the year that COVID-19 upended tradition.Reporters and photographers fanned out to deliver intimate, heartbreaking and heartwarming tales from homes and dinner tables around America, the diverse elements coming together in a seamlessly edited narrative.Among the highlights: From New York, an elderly nursing home resident marking the holiday alone, and a family with an empty spot at the table to commemorate a mother lost to the virus. In Kansas City, a nurse who recently lost her mother and marked the holiday after completing an overnight shift at the hospital. A Florida woman who skipped the family gathering to write Thanksgiving notes to her loved ones. A Utah family of three, all of whom tested positive for COVID-19, who found boxes outside their home overflowing with canned goods, desserts and a turkey. And in Southern California, a man who spent $1,000 on rapid virus tests so he could share Thanksgiving Day with family. https://bit.ly/3lIUgZy

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Feb. 05, 2021

Best of the Week — First Winner

With sourcing, preparedness, AP breaks news on death of pioneering actress Cicely Tyson

AP national writer Hillel Italie took a call Thursday evening from a longtime source with an unexpected tip: Groundbreaking actress Cicely Tyson, known for her roles playing strong, fiercely dignified Black women, was dead. 

Italie set off to get the news on the wire quickly, while also alerting colleagues. That included entertainment writer Mark Kennedy who had met Tyson years earlier. Kennedy had decided that when the time came, the AP obituary would have to capture the breadth and achievement of her life and career. And he had prepared just that.

The AP story moved at least 15 minutes before other outlets, earning more than 265,000 page views and front page headlines.

Celebrity obituaries are intensely competitive; Italie and Kennedy kept AP well in front, through source work, commitment and solid preparation. For that, they win AP’s Best of the Week award.

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Feb. 26, 2021

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP’s Texas staff steps up for coverage of historic storm

pushed through last week’s winter storm coverage with top-notch storytelling even as many suffered hardship of their own.When deadly subfreezing temperatures, snow and ice smacked much of the southern U.S., it knocked out the power grid in Texas, the nation’s energy capital — and that was only the beginning. The bursting pipes, boil water advisories and accusations of price gouging that followed would only exacerbate the suffering for millions left shivering while nearly 80 people died.AP reporters showed in spot and enterprise stories that everything came down to a failure of government, particularly in Texas and neighboring Deep South states where infrastructure breakdowns revealed how unprepared much of the nation is for extreme weather.All this happened as many Texas staffers suffered along with their neighbors, with no power, heat or water. But they got creative and kept up the effort for a fully multiformat report, writing stories on phones when WiFi didn’t work, calling in feeds or charging electronics at colleagues’ homes. One Dallas reporter relocated to the home of an AP retiree when her own power was knocked out.https://bit.ly/2ZMQANFhttps://bit.ly/3dIKS7Dhttps://bit.ly/3r4YEWhhttps://bit.ly/3bAFQHBhttps://bit.ly/3bFHasKhttps://bit.ly/3uuAarl

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Feb. 16, 2024

Best of the Week — First Winner

Up close to Iceland’s volcanic eruption, AP dominates with awe-inspiring visuals

When tremors struck in the early hours of Thursday morning, AP stringer Marco di Marco knew he didn’t have long to reach the scene of Iceland’s latest volcanic eruption before access would be limited by rescuers. His swiftness put the AP ahead of competitors with stunning photos and video coverage that amazed global audiences.

Iceland-based visual journalist Marco di Marco, a specialist in volcano photography and videography, has developed strong relationships with scientists, rescuers and local officials in his work with the AP. He was en route as soon as the eruption occurred, immediately alerting Stockholm-based journalist David Keyton, who put in place all-formats coverage including much-used live video feeds.

Di Marco’s knowledge of the terrain and relationship with local law enforcement enabled him to quickly position himself near where the lava flow would breach a key road, providing unique coverage of the fast-moving event. On site, he filed compressed photos to the global photo desk, edited from his phone amid extremely limited network coverage. That enabled the AP to provide clients with strong visuals just as the world was waking up to news of the eruption. Throughout the day, he provided stunning photography and videography, including aerial perspectives, while also updating AP colleagues on the developing situation on the ground.

For being the driving force behind our stunning coverage of this volcanic eruption, Marco di Marco wins Best of the Week — First Winner.

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