Strengthen Your Politics Online:
Website Gives Stations Depth

VOLUME XXVIII, NUMBER 23 JUNE 9, 2008

Your station's website can be an effective vehicle for providing extensive political information that can be accessed by viewers/users when they have an interest in the campaigns.
The NextGenPolitics website was developed initially by Hertz Research, in conjunction with the executives at KGO-TV, San Francisco. More ABC O&Os and affiliates have now rolled out their own versions.
Here's how it is working.

Win the election, create a valuable resource

The NextGenPolitics website is a valuable resource for people with limited time to invest and a need to know what's happening close to home.
While the passion surrounding the presidential fight is clear, there are many other hometown fights that are stirring interest.
"The niche for this service is primarily local races --- city council, board of supervisors, and ballot propositions --- basically the down-ticket races where people don't know a lot about the candidates," says Richard Hertz, of Hertz Research.
"There are tons of places where people can find out about candidates running for president. But down on the ticket people know almost nothing about these candidates," he says.

The sites feature:

Five-minute candidate video statements. The campaigns have the choice of providing the video or taping at the station for free.

Issue questions and responses. Candidates are asked central questions on major subjects.

Links to key voting resources. People can register to vote or request an absentee ballot online.

Voters are able to get much more information than is often available.
When this year's version of the site was introduced at WLS-TV, Chicago, Vice President & News Director Jennifer Graves explained online, "With the Internet becoming a bigger part of most people's daily lives, it creates opportunities to expand our news coverage well beyond what we report on our newscasts."
She also pointed out it allows diverse candidates who do not have financial resources to reach voters.
"Extending this new type of coverage to candidates of all parties in these key races is an other way to broaden public debate over issues of vital importance," she said.

The site is user-friendly. Utility, simplicity and speed are keys here.
"We're trying to make this a one-stop shop site. Most people don't have a lot of time to invest in checking out candidates. Offering a five-minute video and a place where they can quickly check out the responses to a set of questions allows the user to get right to it as fast as they can in a format that lets them see candidates as people," explains Hertz.

Participation has been growing

Some candidates provide videos, some submit lengthy answers to the questions, and some don't respond at all. This a new format that is gaining support and interest.
Typically, the incumbents are often harder to sell on the idea. But once they see the challengers online, they often decide to participate.

About 60 percent of the participating candidates are opting to tape at the station. Usually, it is the candidates in races with larger advertising budgets that produce it themselves.

The stations are scheduling studio time to record the candidate videos.
"It requires some effort on the part of the stations. But they become the center of the political universe in their market. While this type of thing is new, if they are the only ones who have it, they give voters an alternative," says Hertz.

People most often click on the videos, but many read the transcripts, too.

They explain more with statements

The candidate questions are meant to be probing.
"These aren't hot button questions like, 'Do you promise never to raise taxes?' These are much deeper, such as asking what they plan to do in office, what their priorities are and what their philosophy of government is. They are designed to be take-home-exam type of essay questions. Some people actually write essays on them," he adds.

Competing candidates are asked to respond to the same questions. Here are typical ones WLS put to Chicago-area congressional candidates.

Hertz says that in the local races as high as 90 percent of the candidates participate with written statements.
"The further you get out, it can drop to 50 percent, such as in U.S. congressional races. It often depends on whether candidates are in contested races," he explains.
People whose offices are secure are the least responsive.

This format works just as well when there are high-interest public questions on the ballot.
Californians focussed on two statewide ballot initiatives --- Propositions 98 and 99 --- that included issues of property rights, rent control and eminent domain.
In Los Angeles, KABC-TV offered proponents and opponents the opportunity to address voters directly with free, five-minute video statements. The involved parties were also asked questions for written additional information.

Resource links

Useful online resources are gathered in one place for people.
There is a lot of material out there for voters, but it is scattered in many different places.
The combination of the exclusive material --- which are the videos and the candidate responses to the questions --- and then culling resources to put it all in one place is a valuable service.

Here are sites linked online in Flint at WJRT-TV's http://wjrt.nextgenpols.com

Some sites, such as KGO-TV's, also have links to campaign financing information.
"We're looking at adding other things in the future, such as voting records. This is not a static concept. To be successful, it will have to evolve and add more and more information," says Hertz.

Hot races drive usage

Besides the excitement generated by the presidential hopefuls, Fresno is electing a mayor, so interest is strong there.
"The site has been great because it has given all of our local candidates a voice in the June primary," says Tracey Watkowski, News Director of KFSN-TV.
"We took on a big project when we decided to invite all the local candidates running for office to participate," she adds.

More than 60 candidates were offered the opportunity. Executive Producer Michael Carr has spearheaded the effort.
A few mayoral candidates created their own tapes. They typically have larger campaign budgets.
"Most of the other candidates came to the studio. We gave them certain parameters. It couldn't be longer than five minutes. They could send us the statement, and we would put it into the teleprompter for them," says Watkowski.
Time was set aside after the midday newscast for the tapings.
"We had the crew available at that time, and we put the candidates on chroma key with an election-type background behind them," she says.

The site has been promoted heavily with-in the newscasts and with spots during the day.
"It is something that hasn't been done before that really lets voters see what the person is all about --- in their own words," says Watkowski.

Besides the unfiltered look at the candidate, it puts everyone on a level playing field. It's not just the candidates with deep pockets reaching this audience.

"We have been very happy with the response we got. All the candidates understood it and a large number realized what a benefit it would be to their campaign --- especially the ones who can't afford advertising," she says.

Watkowski feels investing the time and effort in the site was worth it.
"It is a great public service that the station can do, and it is worth dedicating a point person in the newsroom to make it happen," she says.

Good response at KGTV

San Diego has several hot local races, including fights for mayor and city attorney. This has helped drive traffic at KGTV's site. They mention it after political stories, and are running 10 second spots on the broadcasts.

"We had over 70 percent respond, and we keep getting more responses as one candidate sees the competition is on the website. Obvio usly, they are competitive," says J.W. August, Managing Editor.

The campaigns were sent letters explaining the project. A second mailing explained how to fully participate. A third phase was followup. "We gave them a deadline. For those who didn't respond, we followed up with e-mail, saying if they are interested to please send us their material," he explains.

Most candidates chose to tape at the station. This took several days.
"Some of it is labor-intensive. But once you get it going, it's not that difficult. The key is to have a plan on how to get the candidates in and timing of the shoots," he says.

What does this do for the station? "It shows that we are in the political game for real. A lot of times, the newspapers do many races in depth. We can't do that in broadcast, but this gives us the ability to compete with newspapers on equal footing in providing the kind of political information about a candidate that we never could do before," says August.

The big races and the controversial ones normally get coverage.
"This is a way for the not so interesting races get an opportunity to have their issues vetted on a website that is very popular that thousands and thousands of people come to," he says.
Viewers would tune out much of this content, but the web is perfect for such tightly targeted material.
"This allows people to go directly to what interests them, and in this political season, it has turned out to be terrific," he stresses. August says the contacts made during the process of gathering the videos and campaign information have proved valuable.

Additional features build the value

In San Francisco, Hertz Research has worked for several years with KGO-TV and its online polling operation. This has allowed the station to do more surveys than they could have by telephone.
Another project enables people to express themselves and communicate their feelings.

The Taking Action feature helps viewers make their views known to their elected officials.
Users can click on the takingaction. nextgenpols.com link and go to a page where they can enter their zipcode and find out who their state and national elected leaders are. They can click and send an e-mail to the officials when they have an opinion on an issue in the news.
"Taking Action was designed because the reality is that, unfortunately, many of our viewers have no idea who their elected representatives are ---whether in Congress or the state legislature," says Kevin Keeshan, Vice President and News Director of KGO.
He adds, "We know that people in the Bay Area like to be active and involved. Now with e-mail it has become so much easier to engage a politician with direct communication."
The Taking Action element is integrated into stories about pending legislation or hot issues that the elected officeholders could impact.

Hometown connection is increased

This is truly local, local information.
"That's what the station executives like about the site. It gives real meaning to the term 'hyper-local.' You can't get any smaller than some of the units we are looking at. That's what it's all about. People care about things happening in their own backyard," Hertz adds.

Everything is on the Hertz server.
"We basically set up the site. But the stations have to get the interviews with the candidates. It is still a new concept, so the stations sometimes have to chase after the candidates. There is followup work that has to be done," he says.

All the ABC O&Os, plus KGTV-TV, San Diego, have launched NextGenPolitics sites.
"You can't burden your web staff to build something from scratch every time something is needed. It is much easier to drop the information into a vehicle that is designed exactly to do this," he says Hertz.

For more information contact:
Richard Hertz
http://www.hertzresearch.com 
707-775-3333

See also:

Interactive political website launched by ABC O&Os
The concept: Take the power of television to promote it and to let people know it's there. Then the power of the Internet gives people the access to a wide range of material you couldn't offer them otherwise

Online polling provides cost-effective local content
Five thousand people were recruited to participate in ongoing polling at KGO-TV. Online polling allows the station to poll its market more frequently than possible if they we were doing traditional telephone surveys.

Give viewers a voice: The people speak
Widespread dissatisfaction with elected officials and voters' anger marked the 1992 election. The managers at WIXT-TV, Syra-cuse, developed a project to tap into that sense of disenfranchisement.

Gauge reaction of voters
Measuring how people were responding was a big part of covering President Clinton's economic proposals. Interactive technology, focus groups, and a Truth Team were utilized.

Pick debate winners instantaneously
If you can learn something about which candidate viewers feel did the best in a debate you will be offering information beyond a simple summarization of their carefully rehearsed statements. Here are projects that are alternatives to the usual mix of campaign officials, professors, and man-on-the-street interviews for debate reactions.

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