for being ahead on the news that federal prosecutors are investigating whether the National Enquirer had violated its cooperation and non-prosecution agreement by allegedly engaging in blackmail and extortion of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. https://bit.ly/2Ear7nuhttps://bit.ly/2S4t2gS
It was a story that took months of planning and coordination across a half-dozen countries and two continents: the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that marked the turning point for the Allied victory in World War II. The Associated Press has had a presence on the beaches of Normandy since the actual invasion in 1944, but APâs teams in Europe knew that the 2019 event would require an extra effort â it was likely the last major anniversary that veterans who fought in the battle would be alive to tell their stories.
Staffers in Europe and the U.S. went to work months in advance of this crucial anniversary to lay out detailed plans of the distinctive coverage, bringing together reporters in all formats and in multiple countries.
Thanks to the cross-continent teamwork and significant planning and customer outreach, the play was superb. Dozens of customers used the video packages, and the photos and text stories have been mainstays on front pages since the package rolled out, culminating with standout spot coverage of the anniversary.
For outstanding effort, sensitivity and creativity that gave APâs audiences unparalleled D-Day anniversary coverage, Schaeffer, Leicester, Combaldieu, Camus, Turnbull and Santana â in coordination with their many colleagues â share APâs Best of the Week honors.
A groundbreaking collaboration among California newspapers and The Associated Press started with a tweet.
Northern California News Editor Juliet Williams saw on Twitter that the editor of The Sacramento Bee, a McClatchy paper, was driving to meet with the editor of the Chico Enterprise-Record, a MediaNews paper, to talk about wildfire coverage. Williams reached out, offered the APâs help, and a partnership was born, with the goal of illuminating problems and pointing to potential solutions to Californiaâs increasingly deadly wildfires.
The results: nearly a dozen stories, including an analysis of data by McClatchy and AP Los Angeles-based data journalist Angeliki Kastanis revealing that more than 350,000 Californians live in towns and cities almost entirely within zones of very high wildfire risk. An analysis also found that a 2008 building code for Californiaâs fire-prone regions can make the difference in whether homes burn or not, but thereâs little retrofitting of older homes.
The partnershipâs next installment was focused on evacuation planning, revealing that many communities wouldnât share the information or didnât have an adequate plan, or any plan at all. Data analysis by USA TODAY Network-California showed many communities had too few roads to get everyone out.
We heavily publicized the package and play was impressive, with hundreds of downloads of the first two installments. Many outlets used the data to report their own stories about local fire risks. And this isnât the end of the partnership: The next phase will focus on legislative action on wildfire coverage.
When AP engages in collaborations like these we become more than just a content provider to our customers; weâre helping them produce high-impact local coverage that wouldnât exist otherwise. In this case, the âDestined to Burnâ partnership was managed at every level by West Deputy Director of Newsgathering Anna Jo Bratton, who worked for six months with people throughout the AP and the collaborators to make the partnership a success.
For putting the AP at the center of an important collaboration, driving important journalism in a state ravaged by wildfires, and forging a stronger relationship with members, Williams, Kastanis and Bratton win this APâs Best of the States.
for scoring numerous APNewsBreaks, including an interview with the mother and an ex-roommate of a former U.S. Army sharpshooter with a history of PTSD who plowed his car at high speed into a group of Bay Area pedestrians. https://bit.ly/2Libb85
The AP bulletin rocketed around the world just minutes after the release of the much-anticipated report by special counsel Robert Mueller:
WASHINGTON (AP) â Muellerâs report reveals Trump's efforts to seize control of Russia probe and force the special counselâs removal.
That set the tone for a day of dominant AP coverage in every format on the historic findings in the Mueller report.
The success was the result of planning and deep knowledge of the subject matter by APâs Russia team â Eric Tucker, Mike Balsamo, Chad Day and Mary Clare Jalonick â along with lightning-fast speed and precision execution by White House news editor Nancy Benac and the entire Washington bureau.
As soon as they were allowed to open the report, Tucker and Balsamo called the Washington bureau and kept two open lines to the newsroom, where they fed material Day and Jalonick, while Benac began crafting the story that hit the wire right after the report was posted online.
By then, the AP was off and running with outstanding all-formats coverage, including sharp handling of photos and live video. Our speed was so impressive that clients were able to get a complete set of critical and comprehensive edits by mid-afternoon. Our interactive had unheard-of play for a non-election story, while the Trump Investigation hub on APNews more than doubled its previous high pageviews. The standout coverage also ran on front pages of newspapers around the country.
âWhile we were sending bulletins saying that Trump had tried to stop the investigation, everyone else was still saying, âWe have the report, weâre reading it, weâll get back to you,ââ Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said.
For their efforts, Balsamo, Tucker, Day, Jalonick and Benac win APâs Best of the Week.
This week we celebrate two very different, yet equally important photo wins.
David Phillip and the AP photo team assigned to the Masters tournament created some of the iconic images of Tiger Woodsâ historic win â the result of strategic planning, teamwork and execution.
And Pablo Martinez Monsivais wins for his startling capture of the media reflected in the eye of President Donald Trump, taking what could easily have been treated as just another ho-hum daily Trump photo op and âseeingâ something so different.
For delivering outstanding images from two contrasting but highly competitive assignments â and demonstrating how vital the AP is in the photojournalism world â Phillip and Monsivais share APâs Best of the Week Award.
With two major cases over partisan redistricting coming before the Supreme Court, how could the APâs coverage stand out?
Missouri-based reporter David Lieb of the state government team provided the answer, taking the results of last yearâs midterm election and applying a formula called the âefficiency gapâ to measure the potential effects of highly partisan map-making on races for the U.S. House and state legislatures. The efficiency gap, developed at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California and The University of Chicago, measures a partyâs advantage on a statewide basis.
His finding: Democrats could have done even better last November had it not been for boundaries created by Republicans during the last round of redistricting â otherwise known as âgerrymandering.â His analysis showed that Republicans won about 16 more U.S. House seats â and held on to as many as seven state legislative chambers â than would have been expected based on their share of the vote.
Lieb and Data Team editor Meghan Hoyer previewed the state-by-state findings for customers and other AP reporters so the data could be used for localizations. The resulting package landed the week before the Supreme Court arguments, and the play was spectacular, both online and print.
The package was complemented by video and photos from national enterprise reporter Allen Breed, based in Raleigh, who traveled to a historically black college in North Carolina, where Republicans had split the campus between two districts, diluting the votes of the left-leaning student body.
Breedâs full-length video ran with the spot stories surrounding the Supreme Court arguments and parts of it were folded into a video graphic produced by New York deputy director for digital graphics Darrell Allen and Minneapolis-based video graphics newsperson Heidi Morrow. It became a key part of the extensive social promotion plan created by Alina Hartounian, the Phoenix-based multimedia coordinator for the beat teams.
For producing a distinctive multimedia package that made the AP stand out on one of the most important and competitive political topics of the day, Lieb, Hoyer, Breed, Allen, Morrow and Hartounian win this weekâs Best of the States.
Police videos of officers shooting unarmed black men have sparked angry protests in Chicago, Sacramento and other U.S. cities. But APâs Ryan Foley wondered: Is it the norm for departments to release footage from body-worn and dashboard cameras?
Foley, based in Iowa City, Iowa, a member of APâs state government team, investigated and found that many departments routinely deny public access to their videos of officer-involved shootings and other uses of force.
Foley filed open records requests related to roughly 20 recent use-of-force incidents in a dozen states. His letters were met with denial after denial as police departments routinely cited a broad exemption to state open records laws: They claimed that releasing the video would undermine an ongoing investigation. But critics say the exemption is often misapplied to keep embarrassing or compromising video footage from public view.
To tell the story visually, Central Region video journalist Noreen Nasir dug through APâs archives to highlight the moments and emotions that followed the deaths of unarmed black men, including the fatal police shooting of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. She also interviewed a woman in North Dakota whose brother died after being shot in the back of the head during a struggle with police, adding a crucial perspective to the video.
At the same time, Panagiotis Mouzakis, multimedia animation producer in London, used the many denial letters Foley had collected to create a video graphic that was incorporated into Nasirâs video, and Beat Team visuals editor Alina Hartounian developed a social plan that helped the package find a huge audience.
For shining a light on how police departments continue to withhold visual evidence and for devising creative ways to illustrate the story, Foley, Nassir and Mouzakis share this weekâs Best of the States award.
The envelope was opened, âGreen Bookâ was announced as best picture at the 91st Oscars, and entertainment writer Andrew Daltonâs eyes shifted over to Spike Lee.
The director threw up his hands in exasperation and attempted to storm out of the Dolby Theatre before being told to return to his seat. Social media quickly lit up with disdain for the selection by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Daltonâs eyewitness reporting quickly fueled the criticism.
In a packed theater filled with actors and other journalists, Dalton reported what few saw and the television cameras didnât show, giving the AP exclusive material and driving audiences to its comprehensive Oscars coverage.
Later that night, entertainment producer Mike Cidoni Lennox interviewed âGreen Bookâsâ producers outside the Oscarsâ official after-party, helping drive the following dayâs coverage of the controversial win.
The reaction to the best picture winner capped dominating all-formats team coverage of the Oscars, the result of months of planning and preparation. AP customers received a steady stream of photos, video and stories, including film writer Jake Coyleâs deadline story which was viewed more than 88,000 times. Coyle had crafted prep for all the likely winners, allowing for fast updates when the envelopes were opened.
For their extensive planning, professional expertise and swift work, Dalton, Coyle and Lennox win APâs Best of the Week award.
for obtaining two exclusive police reports that revealed surprising details behind Parisâ deadliest fire in more than a decade â one involving an argument involving a resident said to have a history of psychiatric problems who has been accused of arson, and a second detailing the womanâs arrest after she tried to set a car on fire. Hinnantâs well-placed sources put AP far ahead of other news organizations. https://bit.ly/2DK7NMa
Itâs not often you have to write an obituary for a town. Yet thatâs what Martha Mendoza and Jocelyn Gecker did, with Gillian Flaccus producing a compelling video component. Their tribute to Paradise, California â leveled by a devastating wildfire that killed so many residents â painted a picture of all that was lost. Paradise was a gold prospectorâs town, then a lumber town, and until two weeks ago was the home of 27,000 people âwho lived and loved here; they built homes and businesses, schools and houses of worship, parks and museums that proudly honored Paradise's place in American history.â
Mendoza worked from the field, in the ashes of the town, with Gecker in San Francisco tracking down leads, helping to write the finished piece and finding photographs to illustrate âthe townâs history and spirit.â Their nuanced reporting, along with that of many colleagues, drew forth tales of town holidays, and residents ruminating whether those staples of small-town America would continue.
The accompanying video by Gillian Flaccus, recorded during a ride-along with a long-time resident, complemented the text piece by showing street after street of utter devastation over the manâs narration.
Paradise is gone, and until it rebuilds in some fashion, Mendoza, Gecker and Flaccus have given the world the definitive piece on what it represented. For their deft depiction of the town behind the headlines, the trio wins AP's Best of the States.
for the second episode of APâs mini-documentary, âRevolution in Iran,â an intimate and gripping account of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiniâs historic return in 1979 to Iran in the wake of the shahâs ouster as told as told through the eyes of AP journalists.
Like the first installment released in January, the second episode draws on APâs greatest strengths â global reach, rich archival material, in-house expertise and a long history â mixed with innovative storytelling devices and an original score. The end result is a fresh take on this world-changing event that shaped not only Iran but the Middle East and beyond. https://bit.ly/2WOJHJ9
Over the past two years, the Trump administration has relentlessly moved to relax or repeal major environmental and safety rules for the fossil fuels industry to further its energy goals. Each change was reported by news outlets, including the AP. But Billings, Montana, correspondent and environment team member Matthew Brown decided to look more deeply into the highly touted savings to industry as well as the societal costs.
Brown painstakingly examined 11 major rules targeted by Trumpâs administration, wading through many thousands of pages of government documents. Brown identified $11.6 billion in potential savings for companies that produce, use and transport fossil fuels, with billions more expected from a freeze of vehicle fuel efficiency standards that will hike fuel consumption.
But Brown also discovered that those savings will come at a steep cost, including more premature deaths and illnesses from air pollution, increased greenhouse gas emissions and additional derailments of trains carrying explosive fuels.
His Only on AP story ran on front pages of at least 16 newspapers and on numerous web sites. The Washington Post displayed both the main-bar the accompanying glance.
For in-depth reporting and comprehensive accounting of the administrationâs actions on important environmental and safety issues, Brown wins this weekâs Best of the States.
for capitalizing on his understanding of the streaming giantâs business and his history of fair and accurate reporting. Those assets, combined with the APâs reach, enabled him to break the exclusive, market-moving news of Netflix's latest â and largest â price increase. https://bit.ly/2DbT916
for their APNewsBreak on the biggest scandal in the DEAâs recent history, detailing how a rogue agent in Colombia teamed up with a top money launderer to allegedly steal $7 million over six years. The story, built on sourcework and solid reporting, was the second-most read on the APNews app on a Trump-dominated news day, and on its second day was still garnering 35,000 readers. In Colombia, it was front-page news and spurred a police investigation into the rogue agentâs Colombian wife. https://bit.ly/2FZtPgD
New Delhi-based investigative reporter Tim Sullivan spent months looking into whispers that Indian nuns had endured sexual pressure by Catholic priests. What he found, after months of reporting into the closed-off world of Catholic convents, was a pattern of abuse that went back decades, ranging from drunken priests barging into nunsâ rooms to outright rape. He also found a culture of silence that had long kept these attacks hidden. Slowly, though, Sullivan found sisters willing to open up about their attacks, and others who could give perspective on why theyâd been kept secret for so long. Finally, he and New Delhi photographer Manish Swarup traveled to southern Indiaâs Catholic heartland to meet with nuns who had become pariahs in their community for defending a sister who accused a bishop of rape.
Sullivanâs powerful narrative attracted widespread attention. Accompanied by Swarupâs evocative photos, it was one of the APâs most-read stories for the week, with excellent reader engagement. AP clients specializing in Catholic affairs ran the story prominently.
The standout work by Sullivan and Swarup contributed to the weekâs remarkable body of work across the AP in covering abuse by clergy. For exposing long-held scandals in Indiaâs Catholic ministries, Sullivan and Swarup share APâs Best of the Week.
For more than a decade, Washington photo editor Jon Elswick has negotiated with the Department of Defense over coverage plans for the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush, while Houston photojournalist David Phillip fostered a relationship with the Bush family and their spokesman to secure APâs shooting positions for the eventual funeral events.
Those relationships were crucial to arranging and executing coverage, paving the way for more than two dozen staffers to parachute into Washington, Houston and College Station, Texas, where they produced outstanding photos in real time and for the history books.
Among the highlights: Photographer Morry Gash fired a remote-controlled camera that captured a stunning birdâs-eye view of the U.S. Capitol rotunda during visitation and services, and David Phillip negotiated to shoot inside the railroad car carrying the coffin as the funeral train passed through Texas. Phillip called it âthe most incredible event I have ever covered.â
The photo coverage was part of an impressive dayslong cross-format effort by scores of AP staff across the country and globe that included hours of live video and spot and breaking text, video, audio and graphics coverage that explored Bushâs life and presidency from every angle.
For exceptional planning and execution on one of the largest news events of the year, this weekâs Best of the States goes to the team of photo staff covering the Bush funeral.
for all-formats coverage of a Thanksgiving night mall shooting in Alabama, including the first interview with the father of a young man killed by police, who initially identified the 21-year-old as the shooter but later admitted he did not pull the trigger. Montgomery statehouse reporter Chandler provided strong all-formats coverage over the holiday weekend â including photos and video of protests against the police killing of the misidentified black man.https://bit.ly/2Sl619Vhttps://bit.ly/2KJ4UOW
When a source told APâs chief medical reporter Marilynn Marchione that a Chinese researcher had edited the DNA of several human embryos and implanted two into a woman, their conversation launched an aggressive but delicate reporting effort by AP journalists in the U.S. and China. That reporting led to the APâs exclusive coverage of one of the most important and controversial claims in medical and science history. It was nothing less than an attempt to alter the trajectory of human heredity.
Science writer Christina Larson, videographer Emily Wang, researcher Fu Ting and photographer Mark Schiefelbein set out to interview the researcher and his colleagues in Shenzhen and Beijing, while Marchione and videographer Kathy Young worked the story from the U.S.
He's claim raised a laundry list of concerns. After talking with current and former colleagues and outside scientists, it became clear that his claim, while unverifiable, was plausible. AP knew it would be worthwhile reporting the claim, because the claim itself would be major scientific news. And it was â AP's exclusive on He's claim of the worldâs first gene-edited babies made headlines worldwide.
The response from readers, customers and other scientists was immediate and intense. The inventors of the gene-editing technology He used condemned the claim. U.S. and Chinese universities that He was affiliated with launched investigations, and more than 100 Chinese scientists called for a ban on work of this kind in China.
APâs reporting was credited or linked to by at least 44 media outlets and generated numerous downloads. At more than half a million page views it was by far the most read story on APNews for the week.
For responsibly breaking a story in all formats of a major scientific claim while exploring the ethical quandaries that Heâs research has raised, Marchione, Larson, Wang, Young, Ting and Schiefelbein earn AP's Best of the Week.
When Tim Reiterman set out to tell the story of the 40th anniversary of the Jonestown mass murders and suicides, he didnât want to retread territory heâd covered with previous anniversary stories, or rely solely on his own harrowing experiences in the South American jungle.
Instead, Reiterman mainly focused on those he hadnât interviewed before, including the adopted black son of the Rev. Jim Jones. He also focused on those who grew up in the Peoples Temple, or joined as teenagers. These survivors, due to happenstance or their own efforts, were all away from the Jonestown community in Guyana when Jones ordered his followers to drink flavored poison.
The order that ended 900 lives came after a California congressman, temple defectors and journalists including Reiterman were ambushed on a nearby airstrip. The Nov. 18, 1978 attack killed U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan, as well as Reitermanâs photojournalist colleague at the San Francisco Examiner, and three others. Reiterman was wounded in the attack, but went on to shoot photos of the bloody aftermath and write a detailed account two days later.
Reitermanâs approach to the 40th anniversary provided an unparalleled look into the massacre through the eyes of survivors who had to go on grieving close family members and forge new lives back in the United States. It also allowed Reiterman the opportunity to explain the tragedy for readers and viewers who might only know its broad outlines, if that. The all-formats package Reiterman wrote and helped coordinate â with assistance from staffers in all formats throughout the AP â wins this weekâs Best of the Week.
