Election Coverage Down

33% - This Time Around, Less News from the Campaign

The Pew Research Center says election coverage is down 33% in 2012 from 2008. One of the reasons might be that in 2008 both parties had contested primaries. The Democratic Primary was not decided until May. This year there was no Democratic Primary. The Republican Primary started off strong but fell off the 2008 pace in February and March.

Now that the general election is off and running, coverage should pick up again.


Could the drop in coverage be the result of downsizing in print media?

Steve Myers wrote for Poynter that Media General Execs finally realized that the downturn in print media was not part of a cycle.  Media General sold most of its papers to Berkshire Hathaway. Clay Shirky is quoted in the article as saying, "many of the papers (Warren) Buffett has invested in will have reduced both print days and their newsroom staff, and journalists will be writing the “What went wrong with the Media General deal?” story."


Many other papers have already cut back. In my region, The Hartford Courant has been cutting staff for over a decade. The New Haven Register has been teetering on the brink for years. Drops in reporters has an effect on coverage.

Buffett Shows Faith in Local Journalism

Warren Buffet is buying newspapers. He recently purchased 63 dailies and weeklies including Media Generals newspaper chain.
The Omaha World Herald is reporting that Berkshire Hathaway purchased the papers because Buffet believes that local journalism is important and that the papers, if run by his people, will improve their profitability.
Deal shows Buffett's faith in community newspapers - Omaha.com


And, Julie Moos writes in Poynter.org that Buffet is not done buying papers. Poynter's business analyst Rich Edmonds says the deal is attractive to Berkshire because of real estate and other hard assets.
Combined, it's a real boost for local journalism which has been in decline in the past few years.