Out of the Pressboxes; Onto the Field — Again

The Charlotte Observer is one of 14 news organizations in the state collaboration on coverage of the U.S. Senate race.

Lambasted in 1996 by national newspapers for being “insidious and dangerous” and a “fraud,” the statewide North Carolina election partnership is back – wiser and better than before.

The “Your Voice, Your Vote” initiative this year brought 14 news organizations together to share polling costs, do joint three-hour interviews of the U.S. Senate candidates, and share stories.

“A couple of snotty columns in the Washington Post or the Boston Globe have very little impact on how we do our business,” said John Meyer, managing editor of the Wilmington Morning Star and Star News, which partnered with WWAY-TV in Wilmington.

Feedback from readers and participating journalists about the 1996 coverage was mostly positive, say this year’s players.

Still, the alliance made some changes for the May 5 primary that built in more flexibility and independence for individual news organizations.

“Two years ago it was a logistical nightmare,” said Jim Morrill, Government Editor at The Charlotte Observer. The Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer edited all 12 main issues stories, which were then distributed to the participating newspapers and re-edited for their readers.

“We looked at what we did two years ago as a learning experience for all of us,” Morrill said.

The primary change this year: The Charlotte and Raleigh newspapers each created their own coverage and made the stories available for use by other media partners. Available were an analysis of a statewide poll probing voters’ concerns and stories on the four top issues that surfaced: crime, financial security, taxes and government spending, and education.

“The other papers would either take one of our packages or remake it for themselves,” Morrill said. Often they would do sidebars more pertinent to their areas.

In all, five TV stations, eight newspapers and one public radio station participated vs. 16 news organizations in 1996. The lineup included two more newspapers and some new television partners. All the partners contributed to the cost of the polling and to transcribing the candidate interviews, with the amounts based on size.

“I would describe the broadcast participation as brilliant,” said Rick Willis, executive producer for WTVD (ABC) in Durham.

“With the entire partnership, we shared the poll and shared three and a half days of candidate interviews. That was it. But the five commercial TV stations co-produced a half-hour special that ran 10 days before the election.”

Four of the stations took one of the four top issues identified by the poll and each produced an extended story on their issue. The fifth station created production elements that tied all the stories together. Local anchors fronted the pieces.

“So the same program aired statewide, but each program had its own identity,” Willis said.

Moreover, Willis pointed out that, as part of the media alliance, his station collaborated with Raleigh rival WRAL (CBS). WTVD was partnered with the Fayetteville Observer Times while WRAL worked with the News & Observer.

Three Republicans and seven Democrats were facing off for the Senate seat of Lauch Faircloth (R.) All but one third-party candidate participated.

In 1996, incumbent Jesse Helms refused to be interviewed but Faircloth said he found the exercise to be helpful and expressed the hope that the voters would make use of the summaries of information offered by the candidates in making their choices.

Faircloth called it an “an important first step” in getting past the general rule of conflict and controversy that drives too much political coverage.

This summer the media coalition will do another voters’ poll to track issues for covering the race in the fall.

Also participating are the Asheville Citizen Times, the Greenville Daily Reflector, the Greensboro News & Record, The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, VA; TV stations WCNC in Charlotte, WFMY in Greensboro; and public radio WUNC-FM, Chapel Hill.