Michael Leland’s reporters had everything in place until the rain came. Then the ice. Then the snow. On Sunday night before the primary Wisconsin Public Radios News Director was at home on the phone with his reporters all over the state to see who could dig out and cover what.
It was the most frustrating night of the primary. We had three reporters ready to cover things. There was a lot of scrambling to get people around. We had an inch and a half of rain that froze overnight. Then by midday it started snowing.
Events were rescheduled, candidates didnt show up, but all together things came together.
For us the key for us was having reporters who have been through it before especially on Sunday when things started falling apart. Just being flexible and having good people on the ground.
Leland adds:”They really took the lead in keeping me informed as to what was on and what was off.”
In addition to posting raw audio to PRX, Leland used his nine reporters scattered over the state to produce nearly 40 election related stories over 11 days: 30 1:00+ wraps, three 3:30 features, and a four-part issue series that ran Tuesday-Friday the week before the primary. The series (which looked at Iraq, Health Care, Jobs, and Energy) used tape from stake-holders, local university professors, and other non-profit leaders.
What WPRs issues series didnt have a lot of was actual tape from the candidates talking about the issues. Two days after the primary Leland looked at what we at PRX are putting together and said it could have been a good resource had he know about it (especially the recent package on Clinton’s health plan).
Aside from weather, another of Lelands main struggles in covering the election so close to home was working in blind tandem with NPR.
The one challenge we had in dealing with a major national story was how the network was covering it. So we tried to keep to local issues important to the state. And we ended up trying to anticipate what the network would run because you have the issue that a [local] reporter piece would run just after a national piece.
Overall, Leland is very happy with his reporters and thinks his listeners were better informed because of their hard work. If he had to name a disappointment? The candidates. They split town before the results were in.
After all this coverage we did, we were at all the election watch party, but the candidates had moved on by then. It would have been great to have the victory speeches.