(Reminder -- this is tonight at 5:30pm! - promoted by Phillip Martin)
State Senator Kirk Watson will host an online video town hall with Bill White on Monday, July 12th at 5:30pm. You can join the conversation yourself, submit questions, and enjoy a high-tech, low-key campaign chat with two of Texas' most prominent Democrats.
In a conference call with bloggers last night, Senator Watson explained his reasons for hosting the event:
"We wanted to spend some time this year to experiment and push to do different things with social media and new media. One of the points we made at the state convention was that in order to win in November, and govern effectively thereafter, we need to continue to build large and responsive online communities."
Both Bill White and Senator Watson have been among the most prolific adopters of new media tools this campaign cycle. White has built a massive Facebook following, more than 2.5 times the size of Perry's, and has organized rapid-response teams to fight back against Perry's attacks. Senator Watson -- already with his successful "Watson Wire" -- has pushed the envelope throughout the campaign season, starting with the Monopoly Busters fundraising drive and continuing with their "Texas Questions" series.
Ed. note: Ideas that are not original are appropriately cited throughout the piece. I never contacted Bill White's campaign about this story -- my observations about his campaign are just that, observations. They do not constitute any endorsement of his campaign -- by myself or BOR -- but they do reveal how, at least in my opinion, he and his campaign are prepared to win a statewide election.Also, you can follow me on Twitter here: @PhillipMartin
"Texas Democrats' First Truly Statewide Campaign of the 21st Century"
With a single press of a key, either a staffer or a volunteer for the Bill White for Texas campaign ushered Texas Democrats into the new era of internet organization. His campaign has walked across the bridge that so many people spent so many years building. I'm not sure who pressed that key, and I can't guarantee why they did it. But I can say two things for certain:
(1) I'm glad it finally happened, and (2) Not knowing who finally crossed the bridge is what makes it so wonderful.
I will get to the story of what specifically this person on the Bill White for Texas campaign did towards the end of this post. The short version of what they've done, however, may (if I'm right) be quite a story:
A Democrat running a statewide campaign in Texas has, for the first time, fully adapted to the tools and principles of online organization, therefore making it possible to run Texas Democrats' first truly statewide campaign of the 21st century.
I need to unpack that a lot more to back up such a claim, I know. That's why this post is as long (~4,400 words) as it is.
I started writing this as just a short couple of paragraphs on a simple change in the campaign's Twitter usage. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to think it was the sign of something bigger -- that it was the sign of Texas Democrats' finally catching up, after years and years of playing from behind. But to take you from here to there, it is going to take more than just a few paragraphs.
From Editor & Publisher, we get the news that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Houston Chronicle, and the Austin American-Statesman are among the top 15 newspapers to have gained in audience from this time last year. They actually list the top 25, but all the TX papers are in the top 15. From E&P:
Here are the top 25 dailies that had the biggest gain in audience when taking print and online readership into account. The papers are ranked by net combined audience (past seven days in print and 30 days online), according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations for the six months ending March 2009 compared to the same period in March 2008.
GREENWICH (CONN.) TIME -- 111,824 -- 30.74%
THE BIRMINGHAM (ALA.) NEWS -- 781,047 -- 11.85%
THE TIMES-PICAYUNE, NEW ORLEANS -- 820,374 -- 11.72%
WILKES-BARRE (PA.) TIMES LEADER -- 196,229 -- 10.45%
FORT WORTH (TEXAS) STAR-TELEGRAM -- 1,236,205 -- 7.09%
THE PATRIOT-NEWS, HARRISBURG, PA. -- 496,700 -- 6.45%
HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- 2,507,835 -- 6.13%
ST. PETERSBURG (FLA.) TIMES -- 1,297,866 -- 6.09%
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN -- 861,105 -- 5.97%
NAPLES (FLA.) DAILY NEWS -- 265,181 -- 5.97%
The key, of course, is that these figures combine print and online readership. Not sure if you're counted twice if you read the print version and the online version (I imagine you are -- I don't know how they'd control that unless it was a survey, and these are raw figures). In any case, it gets to the quirk of the newspaper industry's problem:
They have plenty of readers. In fact, they have more readers. And as much as some want to wail and moan about the internet and the economic crisis, those aren't the real reasons why the newspaper industry is flailing. Newspaper industry leaders were aware of the coming rise of the internet over a decade ago, and basically sat on their hands. The recent economic crisis merely exacerbated problems that had existed for years -- (1) too many editors on staff, (2) companies demanding too large of a profit, and (3) companies refusing to plan for higher gas prices and increased cost of shipping/cutting their product -- paper.
Most political forces aren't helping matters...though I'd argue there are different levels of blame. Democrats get mad at things like this:
I'll stop there out of mercy for the newspaper industry. But that's how Democrats criticize the newspaper industry. Republicans, on the other hand...
The evisceration of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1980s by conservative Republicans allowed the rise of Rush Limbaugh, who then promoted more conservative Republican policies such as further media consolidation to spread Rush to more channels across the board, along with increased capital to fund more right-wing talk radio.
And...
In any case -- despite their faults and their attackers (those both fair and not so fair), the people are still going to traditional sources of news. They may also be getting their news from the internet -- which the latest Pew Report clearly stated -- but there is still a demand for information from traditional sources of news.
Tomorrow, I'll look at the absolute wrong approach, and hopefully on Wednesday or Thursday talk about the better approach. In the mean time, feel free to discuss your thoughts about all of this in the comments.
One of our segments will be dedicated to the net neutrality debate that we are having in America right now. I've invited Sanford Nowlin of the San Antonio Express-News to be on the show (and he accepted).
I've also extended an invitation to Rep. Charlie Gonzalez (D-TX) to be on the show. They haven't declined but they are wary of appearing on the show becuase of my position in the net neutrality debate. I understand their concerns. But I think I've made it very clear through this blog and my many, many radio appearances that I am most interested in having a fair, open and honest debate. So, I want to have Rep. Gonzalez on the show to give his side of the story as to why he opposes net neutrality.
Why won't he come on the show? He can call in or come into the studio and sit with me face to face. I'll clear out the whole hour to have the debate if he wants. Give his office a call and ask him to appear on the show: (202)225-3236 or local (210)472-6195.
So, it is my hope that Rep. Gonzalez will accept my invitation onto the show and prove that he is a good faith actor in this debate.
