Washington -- The Associated Press has named 10 staff members from around the world, including two AP Broadcast staff members, as winners of its 2001 Gramling Awards for excellence.

 

 AP Broadcast's Michael Palmer and Michael Weinfeld were among the recipients who received the awards, which are the highest awards The Associated Press gives to its staff. The awards, now in their eighth year, are given annually to staff members whose work and initiative contribute significantly to the news report and to overall AP operations.  A committee of bureau executives and department managers selected the winners, who were nominated by their colleagues.

 

 "We should all take pride in the achievements of this year's honorees," AP President and CEO Louis D. Boccardi said. "They exemplify the finest of AP journalism and dedicated service to newspapers and broadcasters worldwide."

 

 

 

Entertainment Editor for AP Broadcast, Michael Weinfeld, was honored with The Gramling Journalism Award, which are given to AP journalists who exhibit the necessary talent, potential, initiative and determination to contribute significantly to truthful and unbiased journalism. Other recipients of this award include Ron Fournier, AP's White House correspondent, who was cited for national political reporting, and Marc Humbert, the New York state political editor based in Albany, who was cited for his statehouse reporting.

 

 The judges said: "Weinfeld created the Broadcast Division's entertainment beat and now oversees all entertainment coverage for the television and radio wires and AP Network News. Whether it is landing the big interviews, getting entertainers to open up to him (producing big stories), spotting key trends early and reporting on them, or building a fast, accurate and clearly written entertainment report, Weinfeld has done it. The judges felt Weinfeld's extraordinary journalism created a new and important AP strength in a field where members want more coverage than ever."

 

 Director of Technology Development for AP Broadcast, Michael Palmer, was honored with The Gramling Achievement Award, which are given to members of the AP staff whose recent achievements have helped to advance the AP's mission as the world's premier provider of news and information. Winners receive $10,000 cash.  Palmer was cited for his role in creating the Media Object Server (MOS) interface standard widely used in the industry to interconnect broadcast production equipment. 

 

 The judges cited Palmer "for the extraordinary achievement of creating and winning industry endorsement of the MOS protocol, a software mechanism for linking newsroom systems to television production equipment. MOS makes it possible for member newsrooms who have AP's ENPS newsroom software to operate video editing and other production equipment from the same computers on which they write their stories. This achievement made ENPS central to the television industry's effort to merge all production functions into the newsroom desktop."

 

 The other Gramling Achievement Award went to Chief of Bureau in Cuba, Anita Snow, who was cited for reopening the AP bureau in Havana after 30 years and then again after the bureau was destroyed by fire last January.

 

 The selection committee also issued a special statement honoring APTN producer Kerem Lawton, who was killed by mortar fire last March near the Macedonian border.

 

 "We remember his gentleness and his high spirits," the committee said, "and we salute the serious commitment to his craft that led him, and leads so many other dedicated journalists, into danger zones around the world."

 

 The awards are named for Oliver S. Gramling, an AP newsman and executive who in 1941 developed AP's first radio wire. Gramling bequeathed his estate to AP when he died in 1992 with instructions that AP staffers nominated for excellence by their colleagues should benefit.