The Real Campaign Happens In TV Studios

John Ellis: “Major media coverage of a presidential campaign breaks down into four parts: the preprimary season, the primary season, the summer conventions, and the general election season (including the debates and the expensive election night broadcast).”

“What happens every four years, without fail, is that major media organizations blow through their preprimary budgets. In the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, they have already begun eating into the budget for primary coverage. By the time the Iowa caucus results are reported and the campaign caravan decamps to New Hampshire, the CFOs of the various news organizations (and their parent companies) are apoplectic, muttering darkly about ‘wild overspending.’ Word quickly comes down from on high: It has to stop.”

“And stop it does. After New Hampshire, the coverage of many candidates becomes the coverage of two (maybe three, but probably not). Costs are cut by relying on affiliates and local news outlets to provide video and text from ‘the campaign trail,’ which is then stitched together by producers and editors in New York.”

“The real campaign plays out in Manhattan and Washington television studios. Cable news outlets (especially) make every effort to push the ‘campaign’ into television studios and away from ‘the campaign trail.'”