As the Republicans head to New York for a convention just as scripted as the gathering staged by the Democrats last month in Boston, editors around the country are focusing their sights on key coverage areas for the week ahead. Here’s a sampling of their plans drawn from an e-mail round-up I conducted in the last few days:
- Fairness and Balance
How will they and their readers measure their coverage of the Republicans against their coverage of the Democratic convention? - Enterprise
What will they do that is meaningful to their readers and unique to their paper?
Clearly, they have plans. Here is a sampling from datelines across the USA:
Fairness and Balance:
- Miami: Tom Fiedler, executive editor of the Miami Herald:
Balance is fundamental to our planning. Although we don’t want to make news judgment based on some misplaced sense of fairness-by-ruler, it is important that our coverage of the GOP convention in terms of volume is comparable to our coverage of the Democrats. Also, it is imperative that the coverage be similar in tone — ideally, neutral and politically agnostic.”
- Atlantic City: Maryjane Briant, managing editor, The Pressof Atlantic City
The Press sent two reporters to the Democratic convention looking for how local delegates and local issues played out. They also covered main speeches like Kerry’s and took note of the protests.
The best story for us at the GOP convention will be who is emerging as favorite for the Republican nomination to run as governor. We will of course cover local delegates and issues, protests and main speeches.
We ordered the same amount of space for coverage of both conventions (two extra pages a day).
We are also devoting our Sunday Insight section each week to campaign coverage. This started before the Dem. convention, and continues through the election. We ran profiles (of) Kerry and Edwards and set up the issues in advance of the convention and are doing the same for Bush, Cheney and GOP.
- Ventura, CA: Brian Snyder, graphics editor, Ventura County Star
A major cornerstone of our convention plans is maintaining balance. In fact, we might design the front page exactly as the page appeared for the Democrats. There’s a sense among many editors here that it’s vital to present a balanced approach. I don’t think there will be many changes to coverage.
However, we might encounter a challenge, because a local Little League team is in World Series play, and has a good shot at winning it all. If that happens, that’s going to change how we present the convention, at least for one day. That story would be big for us, and that might outweigh our desire to mimic convention coverage. As with any news event, we’ll have to look at the present picture if and when it happens.
- Daytona Beach: Denise O’Toole, Sunday editor, News-Journal
Maintaining convention-to-convention balance, or the perception thereof, is the biggest challenge I’m facing on this front.
We ran a story on our local delegates to the Democratic National Convention along with local Democratic bigwigs’ comments on the importance on the convention on 1A the Sunday before.
This Sunday, we have much more competition for space on 1A.The primary election on Tuesday seems of much greater local relevance than the GOP convention, for which we have only one delegate in our circulation area. Also, a homecoming celebration Saturday for our local double-medal-winning Olympic swimmer is crying out to be on 1A. And it’s also a priority to showcase the results of a scientific biennial public opinion poll the newspaper commissions in advance of major election cycles. Another factor is that we’ve already done a 1A mid-week enterprise on a local up-and-coming young Republican who will have a big role in the convention, though she’s not a delegate. We’re still pondering what to do.
- Westchester-Rockland: Dan Greenfield, Metro Editor, The Journal News
As a metro NY paper, it’s as much a political story for us as it is a regional impact story. In planning, we’re just trying to make sure we have all our bases covered: politics, community, security, etc. We’ll have a large staff presence and coordination will be vital.
. . . balance is very dicey. For Boston, our coverage focused more on the politics. Here, we’re dealing with commuting issues, safety, economics, large scale demonstrations, etc., so by definition it has greater impact. So because it’s local, we’ll be giving more attention to the GOP. But we’re presenting the coverage in much the same fashion: 1A centerpieces, inside pages, etc.
Enterprise
- Tampa: Craig Gemoules, deputy managing editor, The Tampa Tribune
Our biggest challenge for this convention is similar to our big challenge for the last one — to know when to blow up our pre-set coverage plans and chase enterprise that grows out of events that occur either inside or outside the convention hall. We managed to be very agile during the Democratic convention in ways that allowed us to tweak enterprise plans to pair up nicely with daily event stories. We hope to do the same this time.
- Jackson, MS. Debbie Skipper, assistant managing editor, The Clarion-Ledger
We are sending two people to the convention — our Perspective editor and one of our political reporters. The biggest challenge before they leave and when they get there is to find stories that will resonate with our readers. It will involve both stories about Mississippians attending and playing a role in the convention but also issues important to our readers. For instance, during the Democratic Convention, we knew Kerry’s veteran’s status would be an issue, and we have a large number of veterans in this state, so we explored that issue and actually did most of that reporting here.
- Memphis: Leanne Kleinmann, assistant managing editor, Memphis Commercial Appeal
We’ve drawn our convention coverage plans pretty carefully to echo the local, local, local coverage we mapped out . . . last year.
So that means our reporter won’t write whatever the main national story is; we’ll get that and more from the wires. His job is to do a daily notes column and enterprise pieces from the delegations, focusing mainly on Tennessee, though in New York, the Mississippi Republicans will be a big factor, too.
From Boston he looked at our local delegates, and tried to do more behind-the-scenes stuff; for example, a big question for us was whether Barack Obama unseated Harold Ford Jr. as the rising African-American star. . .
In New York his mandate is the same: concentrate on the local stories, and the local angles of anything that might resonate nationally.
- Fresno: Tamma Adamek, Assistant Metro Editor, Fresno Bee
One of the challenges we face is planning stories that bring the convention home for readers but aren’t parochial. We’re doing a walkup to the convention about what California means in the presidential race. We’re not a swing state but do serve as a veritable ATM for the pols and this year we’ve got Schwarzenegger’s celebrity to offer up. That story will likely run alone. Most days of the convention, though, the stories our reporter produces will run alongside more comprehensive wire stories.
One last– and important note.
As the editors plan, they are also mindful that there will be protests at the convention. They are thinking now about the standards that will guide their coverage of those events, issues and voices:
- Bergen County: Art Lenehan, Managing Editor, The Record As for the protests, our general rule of thumb is that protests get covered to the extent they disrupt public order. We anticipate these will … and that’s another complicating factor. The Republicans are holding their convention in an unfriendly atmosphere.
- Miami: Fiedler, Herald
Coverage of the protests must be proportionate to their impact on the overall event and on the election as a whole. It’s fair to say that few media paid much attention to the protesters in Boston, but that was because they warranted little coverage. That may or may not be the case in New York. If there are massive protests, of course that will be newsworthy, and perhaps dominant. But it is also important that we strive to report the work inside the GOP convention and not allow that to be sacrificed to what happens in the streets.I’ll let the last word come from Little Rock: David Bailey, managing editor, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:
We’ll use the same measures we use for any demonstrations at any events:
— How big is it? A couple of dozen? A million?
— Does it have any immediate impact on the convention? On the city? For our readers?
— Is it an effort to achieve some direct goal, or is it geared more toward trying to simply grab some media attention to amplify the protestors’ voices?
— How do the convention, the city, and authorities handle the situation?
— For our readers and for future historians, how significant are these protests compared to other news events of the day? Our goal will be to keep a proper sense of proportion about the events. And we absolutely will not scrounge desperately for anything novel just because we need to fill space.
As the convention unfolds, I don’t think we’ll see much scrounging to fill space. Our editors’ roundup demonstrates the importance of leaders taking time for thinking, planning and preparing for the unknown as they head into big story territory.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article provided incorrect information about Arthur Lenhan, who is managing editor of the The Record in Bergen County, N.J.
