AP’s Colombia earthquake coverage was a standout example of what we can build around a breaking story when teams move quickly, think creatively and keep finding new ways to serve audiences after the initial news has broken. We rapidly established live shots, while our staff visual team was already mobilizing toward the hardest-hit areas.
What made the report especially strong was its breadth and inventiveness beyond the breaking-news mainbar and the reporting from communities closest to the destruction. Video edits showed evacuations in Bogotá, collapsed buildings and searches through rubble in Cali and Pereira, rescue crews working into the night, and strong verified user-generated video of a man scrambling for cover as the quake struck.
The team then pushed the storytelling further with field video dispatches and a creative 500-word “Being There” text piece built from a photographer’s reporting and standups — turning material gathered for video into a tightly written Q&A.
In delivering multiple angles of the tragedy and sensitively focusing on the communities that bore the brunt of the destruction, AP turned a major breaking event into a genuinely comprehensive, creative and distinctly multimedia report.
Submission Links
https://apnews.com/article/colombia-ecuador-earthquake-26fd40f93272d834fced47a4a673edc9 https://apnews.com/article/colombia-earthquakes-venezuela-disaster-response-40ed966239ac5d945f6490c40462d0a1 https://apnews.com/video/a-7-4-magnitude-earthquake-shakes-colombia-and-ecuador-prompting-people-to-evacuate-buildings-32ca6c4e255149e48c9fb497ec8ebd3a https://apnews.com/article/colombia-earthquake-rescue-search-quake-99bea7b7eae8778e9e6729556c855369 https://apnews.com/article/colombia-quake-photographer-aftermath-f0800e6bef7d67dc29337ded88ebf2ff
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