Recorded on June 22, 2012
The general election for president has taken shape, and now it’s time to start planning how to cover it – at both weekly and small daily newspapers.
Why should smaller newspapers cover the presidential race? If dailies rely on AP, the coverage won’t be localized. If weeklies just stick to local news, they will ignore a major topic of discussion among their readers – who, in the dozen or so swing states, can provide the margin of victory or defeat. Covering the race can help your build and maintain a newspaper’s brand as the most authoritative local source of news and information.
What will be covered:
-How to identify federal issues that affect your community and where to get reliable information and candidates’ positions.
-How to localize the race with reporting on campaign contributions and political activity.
-How to keep misleading ads from controlling the conversation.
-How to exercise leadership on your editorial page.
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The Presenter……
AL CROSS is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which helps rural news media define the public agenda in their communities and cover broader issues that have local impact but lack local sources.
Cross helped organize the Institute, which has academic partners at 28 universities in 18 states. He became its director in 2004 after more than 26 years as a reporter at The Courier-Journal, the last 15½ as chief political writer. He still writes a political column twice a month for the Louisville newspaper and is a commentator on KET’s election-night programs. He is the longest-running panelist on KET’s weekly “Comment on Kentucky.”
His awards include a share of the Pulitzer Prize won by The Courier-Journal’s staff in 1989 for coverage of the nation’s deadliest bus and drunk-driving crash.