No news on Obama's win

Our small shop went to the local Democratic Club's headquarters and ran on A1 a localized piece on what area Dems felt about Obama's victory. The rest of our A1 was devoted to local races. We also ran man-on-the-street stuff about Obama's election and an editorial about the momentous occasion inside. We put the main AP story about the race on A3, our top National/World News page. Gave him 3/4 of the page and a nice photo. Teased it on the front.

And we were hammered by a small but vocal minority. And this is in a county that voted about 70-75 percent for McCain, and in a community that probably voted 85-90 percent for McCain. In hindsight, while we thought our local angle on the national race would be sufficient, we probably fucked up.

 

Huh, I thought hyperlocal was supposed to save newspapers. Guess not.

 

There is no way that a presidential election isn't a local story. No way. I don't care who you are. Every person in your community who walked into a voting booth that day, THAT race was listed first on their ballot. This wasn't the Super Bowl or the World Series or even Hurricane Katrina. Your readers had a direct vote in the outcome of this. They will reap the benefits and/or pay the consequences.

Inexcusable. Fireable.

 

Could CNN get someone who wasn't black to complain about the lack of coverage in the Oklahoma paper?

 

not when the publisher is a part-owner

 

Saw that piece. Sorry, but the lack of coverage was proboaly not racism. Stupidity, yes. Racism, no.

 

i'm glad those papers missed out on what was one of the biggest single-sales days in history.

local. local. local. how's that workin' out for ya?

 

To be fair, I understand not making it the above-the-fold story if you are a hyperlocal paper, but if you're a daily, there is no excuse for this not to be the centerpiece of your whole shebang.

It's like working for a daily on 9/11 and saying "Well, we've got to get the local school board meeting news story in and we don't have enough room to run city council notes. I'm sorry, but something has to go and readers won't care about this whole '9/13' thing tomorrow."

 

Whatever you might feel about hyperlocal (I'm no fan myself, but I can at least understand why people would be), it's not especially prudent to condemn the whole practice based on a once-in-a-generation national event. Hard cases make bad law.

 

no, i pretty much think hyperlocal is a ridiculous approach all the way around.

 

Maybe we should give it less caffeine and make it somewhat energetic local.

 

god. damn. solid.