Longtime Honolulu reporter Audrey McAvoy and freelance photographer Marco Garcia provided exclusive live video and photos of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s first visit to the U.S. AP Asia colleagues informed the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Hawaii region that Lai would make his first visit to the U.S. with a two-day Hawaii stopover Thanksgiving weekend. The challenge was figuring out where Lai would go. The politically sensitive visit was drawing international attention and Chinese criticism, and his itinerary was closely guarded. McAvoy called several Taiwanese sources in Hawaii and managed to get details about an event starting in less than two hours’ time. In that time, she hired photo freelancer Marco Garcia and registered them both for the event. Once there, McAvoy went up live for video on her iPhone for exclusive shots of Lai receiving leis and greeting his supporters. Garcia got exclusive photos as well. AP’s photo and video coverage on the first day of Lai’s visit was unmatched by any competitor. AP had a dominant beat on Reuters and Agence France-Presse, both of which were not at the Saturday events. The newsroom ready edit off McAvoy’s live video feed was used more than 160 times between Saturday and Sunday; the digital-ready edit was in AP’s Top Five digital videos. AP’s exclusive photos of Lai being greeted by supporters were used by CNN, NBC News, Fox, Deutsche Welle, Politico, The Washington Post and numerous Asian newspapers and digital sites.
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