The strategy behind Obama's local interviews

On President Obama's schedule today are interviews with eight local television stations, including sit-downs with three CBS affiliates: WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia, KKTV in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and KTVN in Reno, Nevada.

At first glance, the president's decision to schedule the interviews might seem odd. Instead of sitting down for one interview with a national reporter with a nationwide audience, he's choosing to take more time out of his schedule to sit down with a string of local reporters who reach a much smaller segment of the population. In doing so, he is taking up more of his busy schedule than he otherwise would - and reaching fewer people in the process.

So what's the thinking behind the decision to go local?

For starters, affiliate interviews will often be featured in their entirety on a local newscast, allowing a candidate perhaps four minutes to push his message.

"When the president talks to some of these folks, he doesn't get the average sound bite on the national news, which is...what, eight seconds?" says Democratic political strategist and media consultant Peter Fenn. In a local interview, he says, "you get more than the eight seconds. And you're not just a small part of a larger story, you're a big part of that newscast."

"The look of local news is different than the look of national news to people," adds Republican campaign consultant Roy Fletcher. "It makes people feel a bit included, and it gives [the campaigns] a chance to target a message."

Candidates do not choose the local stations randomly, of course. Most of today's interviews are with reporters in swing states, including those with the three CBS stations on the schedule. Not just that, but they're in media markets that reach the swing voters that will help decide a close race. (That includes conservative Colorado Springs, whose market covers more liberal Pueblo.) Sitting down for a local interview is a way for a candidate to show voters in these areas that he cares about their concerns - and isn't just lumping them in with the rest of the nation.

Local reporters are also seen as less likely to press candidates than national reporters, and more willing to let a candidate push his message without interruption. But local interviews are far from risk free: As Fletcher notes, "There have been some instances where a local reporter got all fired up and created a dilemma for a national candidate."

Last year, Mr. Obama seemed to grow frustrated with a Texas reporter who pressed him during a contentious interview, at one point saying, "Let me finish my answers next time we do an interview, all right?" Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney grew testy when asked about gay marriage and the marijuana by a Colorado reporter in May, asking, "Aren't there issues of significance you would like to talk about?"

The outcome of a local interview, Fletcher says, "just depends on the attitude of the reporter and what that station wants to do - do they want to make local news, or do they want to make trouble."

Fenn notes that the Obama campaign has long been engaged in a "very intense outreach" to local reporters in key areas as part of an effort to get a targeted message disseminated in a local market. He also notes that a relationship between a local news outlet and a national campaign can be mutually beneficial - giving the campaign a chance to push its message, and a local reporter a chance to shine.

"One of the things that happens in this business is that local, hardworking reporters who are out in the hustings find it hard to break through the screen that is the Washington beltway," he says. "You might even call it a fence."

[Dianne93101]

1 word to describe these interviews is "Informercial"

I sure look forward to seeing a real, unedited, interview w/Pres Obama, you know, like the ones the main stream media did with Pres Bush

[2happy2ride]

"I've never been proud of America", My Muslim faith", "We're the country that built the Intercontinental Railroad", "Navy Corpse-Man",
"The Middle East is obviously an issue that has plagued the region for centuries", "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems." -attempting to make the case for government-run healthcare, while simultaneously contradicting his own argument, "I've now been in 57 states -- I think one left to go."...gaffes, or just NOT equipped to be president?

[RCRawlings]

Is the moocher paying for all this TV time or are they left wing stations helping him spread the cow pies and manure lies and blame?
When this POS comes on TV I hit the mute or the previous channel button on the remote.

I have heard enough over the past 3 1/2 years of his excuses and blame game to last until he is tossed out of office in November or hopefully investigated for the remainder of his term like Bill Clinton was.

[stephand]

"The private sector is doing fine..."

[kraven morehead]

It rarely matters because almost every degree in broadcasting oin teh last 10 years has come from a liberal arts college where just having a conservative veiwpoint is considered to be racists, sexist, and homophobic even if none of these issues were ever commented on by the conservative. so I would expect that Obama has a pretty easy question period comming from his liberal college buddies