At the same time, original, local sourcing of national affairs has contracted at inverse proportions. Today, fewer than half of the states have a dedicated reporter sending news back home from the banks of the Potomac.
What if there was a way to fill the gaping void? A way to share the straightforward facts about current legislation, capture local opinion and advance the debate? A tool to drive additional traffic and a resource to glean community generated content? And all at no cost to your papers?
If this sounds interesting, here's some good news. There's a free online platform called PopVox.com that does all of the above. Our free community paper industry has been using them for several months now in grassroots advocacy efforts. We've been part of the rigorous beta testing process, and our hands-on has been a two thumbs up.
While PopVox.com is an excellent tool for driving communication to Congress, it also provides a wealth of unbiased information of local interest. You can cut through partisan spin with matter of fact legislative summaries by bill number, and links to the actual language. Or you can track whats new, what's trending in popularity and what's scheduled for consideration. With easy to use widgets you can essentially host your own online forum on any pending legislation as well as track, map, display and capture comments within the communities you serve.
www.PopVox.com has a lot of untapped potential for publishers. And for the price -- access, data, widgets and dynamic content are FREE! -- it's well worth a look to see how you might benefit from connecting your readers with the real-time workings of Washington, D.C.
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Here's a look at how POPVOX can help local publishers. With POPVOX, you can:
- Pick out local quotes (from your district or state) supporting/opposing a bill. (Say your local reporter is doing a story on the water contamination at Camp Lejeune, NC, and the effects on veterans stationed there. On POPVOX, you can find personal accounts (https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/s277/report#nation ). Or you're covering a national story like Postal Reform, but want a perspective from the local area your paper is based. You can drill down and compare national sentiment with, for example, what Floridians think, and also find a comment written by someone locally (https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/112/hr1351/report#state=FL )
- Search activity feed to find what comments are coming up in the district. This will allow a reporter to have the pulse of the local area. What are people commenting on? What's on their minds? And perhaps be able to report on a trend or concern before it reaching the tipping point.
- Pick a "comment to Congress" or "quote of the week" to highlight in an editorial or text box.
- Use data and public sentiment when interviewing local candidates. If a candidate says, "no one in my district supports x, y or z..." a reporter can ask a great follow-up question based on the publicly displayed comments on POPVOX.
- Invite local legislators to respond your constituents on the paper's website. All comments to Congress written using POPVOX are delivered to the appropriate Congressional office. So why not ask them to follow up in an interview?
- Add widget to article pages that mention bills or in editorial columns -- to empower users and have them view the local newspaper site as their place for action. (https://www.popvox.com/services/widgets#splash )
- Add localized comment stream (displaying only comments from the district). You can display all comments -- supporting and opposing -- from a district on a particular issue, so it's neutral, dynamic content for your website. (https://www.popvox.com/services/widgets#commentstream )
