USA Today has announced a partnership with ABC News to “report from every state in the nation during the 50 days leading up to the presidential election.”
The reports will come from one state each day, starting next Monday until November.
The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Barack Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign, reports the L.A. Times.
During the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral, the center found. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative.
“I think I was just in a stage where I was just trying to get things done, and maybe look for an older audience,” the 15-year-old Hannah Montana star said.
“I was working with a big magazine just trying to go with what they were saying.”
For more of her interview, click here.
The story on Us Weekly’s cover - bottom right - featuring Katherine Heigl is another in a string of faux news stories from Us Weekly.
When Senator Barack Obama heads for Iraq and other places overseas this summer, it will be a full-court press by the major network anchors including NBC’s Brian Williams, ABC’s Charles Gibson, and CBS’ Katie Couric.
Well, so much for that idea.
Back in April, the 150-year-old Atlantic featured Britney Spears on its cover.
It faced a firestorm from all fronts - according to Foliomag.com.
The Britney cover tanked, according to figures submitted by the Atlantic to the Audit Bureau of Circulations Rapid Report filing system late last month.
To see the diasterous numbers, make the jump:
Buyers want numbers from publishers faster, while publishers are hesitant to comply because they fear it will hurt them in the negotiating process, reports Mediaweek.
ABC will now publish guidelines for using Rapid Report data the week of April 21st.
The new guidelines called for publishers to file initial postings no later than three weeks after the on-sale date for weeklies, five weeks after the on-sale date for bi-weeklies, and seven weeks after the on-sale date for monthlies.
Click here to read the Washington Post’s Tom Shales’ review of last night’s debate. (It’s getting a ton of buzz on all the networks!)
He believes ABC’s Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos did a terrible job — especially by focusing on gossipy issues during the first 52 minutes of the debate in an attempt to get Clinton and Obama “clawing at each other.”
Shales also believes CNN and MSNBC did better jobs with earlier candidate debates.
Your thoughts?
BREAKING NEWS: ABC WANTS WEEKLIES & MONTHLIES TO FILE INITIAL POSTINGS NO LATER THAN THREE AND SEVEN WEEKS, RESPECTIVELY, AFTER THEIR ON-SALE DATE!
Mediaweek reports that ABC will make this request on March 18th.
David Leckey, EVP, Consumer Marketing, AMI, and ABC vice chairman chimed in and called the recommendations as “best practice guidelines,” saying, “We just want participants to speed up their initial estimates, subject to change. Hopefully, it’ll be embraced.”
Come on already. Show us the numbers! You’ve got them. What’s the big deal? Um, they suck!
