Smart planning and flexibility gave AP’s customers and audience unparalleled coverage of the presidential debate — with fast photos and a comprehensive live blog 

By Colleen Long, Curtis Yee, Emily Olson, Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Jon Elswick, Paula Ulichney-Munoz, Gerald Herbert, John Bazemore and Ben Gray

Smart planning and flexibility gave AP’s customers and audience unparalleled coverage of the presidential debate — with fast photos and a comprehensive live blog.

Advanced planning, extensive cooperation, and flexibility when things changed on the night of the presidential debate meant that the AP delivered a fast-paced, informative live blog for an audience of millions and a comprehensive photo report ahead of the competition.
The AP has never covered a presidential debate like it did when President Joe Biden and his Republican rival, Donald Trump, met for their first encounter of the 2024 campaign in Atlanta.

Dozens of journalists spanning various teams and bureaus collaborated to produce a high-velocity live blog that covered the debate in real-time, edited and overseen by Washington staffers Colleen Long and Curtis Yee, along with News Editor for live blogs Emily Olson.

Meanwhile, photographers Gerald Herbert, John Bazemore, and Ben Gray made images despite a chaotic setup. Assistant Chief of Bureau for Washington photos Pablo Martinez Monsivais was on-site to edit but quickly encountered connection problems and couldn’t see any photos Herbert, who was in the debate venue, was sending. Photo editors Jon Elswick and Paula Ulichney-Munoz jumped in and handled the live file without any delay to our clients.

Producing the live blog required deep planning and partnerships across the organization. Key players were identified weeks in advance to contribute on topics ranging from immigration and national security to legal affairs, fact-checking, and general political analysis.

The result was an engaging second-screen experience that featured more than 25 bylines, a testament to the AP’s deep talent network and a validation of the intense front-end work that was crucial to executing the coverage. The live blog has over 1.45 million page views, making it the second most-read live blog in apnews.com history. Average engagement time is 1:37, which is roughly 20 seconds higher than average.

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