"Local" news coverage of the NH Primary

[Robert A Whitaker]

As someone who covered the 2000 NH primary for WCSH, let's get a few things
straight about why the station is in Manchester for a week and engaging in what
Dan Billings calls "an incredible waste of resources."

WCSH spends between $15,000-$20,000 to provide coverage of the NH primary from
Manchester. As most of us know, TV stations don't spend this kind of money
without guarantee of a solid return. What is it?

1) Corporate benefits. This year, three Democratic candidates
hail from states where Gannett owns TV stations:

Wesley Clark, Arkansas:   (KTHV-TV Little Rock)

John Edwards, N. Carolina: (WFMY-TV Greensboro) (Gannett also owns WLTX-TV,
Columbia, SC; Edwards is a native of South Carolina)

Dick Gephardt, Missouri (KSDK-TV St. Louis)

These stations all send reporters to NH to cover the candidates, so WCSH's
Manchester bureau serves as something of a Gannett-TV "headquarters" for crews
in NH. They all use WCSH equipment to shoot, write, edit, feed stories, and do
live shots. Along with the WCSH crew, there are probably about 20 people
working out of the WCSH hotel suite. (I don't know if KSDK still sent people to
NH after Gephardt dropped out.)

This arrangement pays off for everyone because it saves corporate and the other
stations the expense of each station sending more people, more equipment, and
renting more space. Gannett is big on teamwork and sharing resources. This is a
perfect example of that. Corporate was very happy with
the NH coverage system in 2000. Gannett stations from Arizona and Tennessee
sent staff to Manchester to cover John McCain and Al Gore's campaigns in NH and
did live shots from WCSH's bureau.

That's the main reason WCSH is there. If corporate thought it a waste of
resources, WCSH wouldn't go.

Second, let's not forget WCSH is only 35 miles from New Hampshire; the northern
1/3rd of the state is part of the Portland/Lewiston DMA. WCSH has tens of
thousands of viewers in New Hampshire, from Portsmouth-Dover-Rochester in the
seacoast to Laconia in the Lakes Region, much of the Concord area, and the
entire northern part of the state, where it is the primary NBC service.
There are people watching who are interested.

Third, what's happening in NH is important, Mainers do care, and yes, they are
talking about what's going on. What's wrong with trying to exceed viewers'
expectations? I hear a lot of complaints about stations curtailing political
news coverage, running more fluffy J-Lo and Ben stories, and all but ignoring
serious political issues. It's not a perfect world and that is true with some
stations, but what's wrong with taking politics seriously and thinking a major
presidential primary in a city 70 miles away is worth a lot of time and money,
especially when it benefits several group-owned stations? The facts are this:
management likes it, corporate likes it, and advertisers like it. WCSH's
newscasts are sold out. Do the viewers like it? Take a look at the ratings...

> What this is about is ego.  The station and the station's reporters want to
> be a big deal by covering the Presidential race.  Tonight they spent two
> minutes interviewing Tom Brokaw and other NBC correspondents. I'm sure
> they'll be telling their colleagues all week what the big boys were really
> like.
> 
Who wouldn't enjoy it? After you've stood through -50 windchills in Greenville,
seen more body bags than you care to, and done a lot of "StormCenter" at 5 in
the morning, covering the NH primary and meeting those guys is part of what
makes the job fun. Maybe it is "about ego" for some people. There's a little
bit of that in all of us.

I suspect the real reason they interviewed Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert was about
Clark's appearance on Meet the Press (where he got roasted) and Dean's snub of
an invitation to spend the full hour on the show. Sounds like news to me. 

> Their coverage might be worthwhile if they provided something that couldn't
> be found elsewhere, like the involvement of Maine people in the NH
> campaigns, but instead they do they same horserace coverage that can be seen
> on the network news or on cable.
> 

The facts paint a different picture. WCSH did a story on the 400+ Mainers
working on the Dean campaign in NH Saturday night...and which network or cable
news outlet has sat down with Andy Smith at the UNH survey center for
a behind-the-scenes look at how a polling operation works? 

Sid Whitaker
former WCSH-TV reporter