AP names Raghu Vadarevu to new digital storytelling role

The Associated Press on Wednesday named its enterprise editor for the Western U.S. to a new role on its global enterprise team, appointing Raghu Vadarevu to the position of news editor for digital storytelling.

The appointment was announced by Global Enterprise Editor Marjorie Miller. In his new role, Vadarevu will work closely with editors, writers and visual journalists around the world to tell the AP's most ambitious enterprise and investigative stories on digital, mobile and social platforms.

"Raghu is an innovative leader in digital storytelling and we are pleased that his talents will be applied more broadly across the AP," Miller said.

Vadarevu's appointment is part of a larger effort underway at the cooperative to reimagine its enterprise reporting efforts around the needs of customers who seek a dynamic digital and visual report.

Beginning in 2014, Vadarevu managed enterprise and investigative stories in the Western U.S. from the AP's regional editing desk in Phoenix. His projects include a piece on staffing irregularities at a privately run prison in Idaho which won the public service award from the Society of Professional Journalists, and a package on perimeter breaches at major U.S. airports that was a finalist for an Investigative Reporters and Editors Freedom of Information award.

Vadarevu, 42, guided the West region's Twitter account from its inception, and used it as a way to encourage journalists to think creatively about telling their stories in different formats. His recent work also includes an interactive story about a Chicago teenager paralyzed by a gunshot, part of a package that won the Associated Press Media Editor's 2017 award for best feature.

Before joining AP in 2006, Vadarevu was a reporter at several newspapers. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and received a master's in journalism from Columbia University.