Patch CCO talks election coverage: Virtual news teams, trending hashtag

No sooner had Sandy begun to recede when the editors at Patch’s more than 850 sites had to resume election coverage, and ramp it up in the final days before voting. They churned out more than 12,000 stories on Tuesday, November 6.

But it’s no secret that local elections are important local stories, nor that hyperlocal targeting was paramount for the national campaigns this year as well. But what hyperlocal sites like Patches are showing is that they aren’t just the best at delivering locally relevant content — they are the new model for news, a two-way communication tool, where readers used the hashtag #PatchElections to communicate to their local Patch, as well as to one another, rounding out and deepening the story. And at Patch, in particular, strengths are gained from its network approach (local, regional, and national teams). Rachel Feddersen, Patch’s chief content officer, walked us through the network’s approach to election coverage and the implications it has for the rest of the news cycle.

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Matt (Sokoloff) Broffman  
 
Residential fellow

Matt (Sokoloff) Broffman is director of innovation for the city of Orlando (Florida). He was a 2012-2013 RJI Fellow.