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Best of the Week - First Winner Aug. 18, 2023

Speedy, smart coverage on Hawaii’s wildfire breaks AP engagement records

When a wildfire broke out in Maui and obliterated the centuries-old town of Lahaina, staff in AP’s Pacific Northwest sprang into action. Honolulu’s Audrey McAvoy was on the ground within hours, leveraging the AP’s unique Hawaii footprint for the first of many days of aggressive coverage that allowed AP to own the story from the beginning.

McAvoy was quickly joined by Portland, Oregon, reporter Claire Rush, who canceled her vacation; photographer Rick Bowmer and video journalists Ty O’Neil and Haven Daley. Jennifer Kelleher joined the reporting effort from Honolulu, where she anchored the story for days with help from Chris Weber in Los Angeles and worked longtime sources, including Gov. Josh Green, to keep AP ahead. Rush, O’Neil and Bowmer slept in an SUV for two days in the burn zone.

On Aug. 9, apnews.com received 7.6 million page views — a new record and a 32% increase over traffic the previous Wednesday, and the following day also broke previous records with 7.5 million page views.

The Live Updates fixture, artfully anchored by a changing cast of characters, was also a huge winner for AP and served as a “search tree” that led readers back to AP’s content again and again.

For extraordinary coverage of the devastating fire, accomplished despite huge logistical challenges, the AP Maui team earns Best of the Week — First Winner.

Best of the Week - Second Winner Aug. 18, 2023

Immersive projects by hip-hop team and a reporter’s multiformat approach on glacier share award

In today’s AP, collaboration across the News Department — across formats, across geographies, across different points of view and areas of expertise — is more important than ever. So, too, is the opposite: the initiative of a single AP journalist to tell important stories. Without either of these crucial skills, AP’s report is less than it might be.

It is in that spirit that this week’s Best of the Week second winner is awarded — split evenly between two projects that illustrate the best of what we can do individually, and the best of what we can do together.

The projects came together in completely different ways: One in which a team of journalists produced a cross-format project that celebrated hip-hop music’s 50th anniversary and its impact on the world.

The other was also a cross-format project — but done by only one journalist who worked remotely with editors — that captured in images and in words how an Alaska town is facing the loss of its iconic glacier.

Both projects succeeded spectacularly.

For collective and individual effort, Hajela, Nasir, Landrum, Hamilton, Mouzakis and Bohrer share Best of the Week — Second Winner.