Making the Issues Matter

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Making the Issues Matter

• The IssuesPA Story
• The Pennsylvania Economy League

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The Goal?

• Surround Pennsylvanias government officials with
  information and insight on issues in order to
  encourage informed action

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What does it take
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to make the issues
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matter?
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Step One

• Put together a good team

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• PA Economy League
• Web Developers
• Communications consultant
• Pollsters
• Community partners

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Step two

• Find smart money

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• The Heinz Endowments
• The Pew Charitable Trusts
• The Pittsburgh Foundation
• The William Penn Foundation
• PA Economy League

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Step Three

• Surround the candidates and officials on the web

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Gubernatorial Election (2002)
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• 2002 -- Transforming IssuesPA from election focus
  to governing focus

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IssuesPA 2.0
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Philadelphia Mayoral Election
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And now? IssuesPA v3.0

• Handles both elections and governance
  simultaneously
• Strong focus on issues
• Has become integral element of PEL communications
  strategies
• Foundation funding becoming more difficult while
  expectations are higher

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How do you make people care?

• Promote
• Promote
• Promote

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In the newspapers
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• Direct placement of stories
• Endorsements
• Poll usage
• Website linkages
• Shared content

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On TV
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• 3 Statewide TV forums (2002)
• IssuesPA 2006 4, hour long programs on issues
• Issues spots run on cable and public TV
• Election night discussions of issues
• Programming for commercial TV shows

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And wherever else possible
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• 100,000 bookmarks in PA public libraries
• 100,000 Coffee sleeves
• 300,000 transit passes with IssuesPA logo
• 4,000 weekly e-mails to state leaders
• Speaking appearances
• Website links and ads

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The Impact?(2002)
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100,000 visitors to www.IssuesPA.net
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stayed an average of over 5 minutes
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downloaded over 30,000 reports
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and made important decisions.
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• 68 learned about issues they cared about
• 32 figured out which issues were important
• 33 told a friend about IssuesPA
• 38 decided who to vote for

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• Dont just take our word for it

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• League of Women Voters of Pgh. Good Government
  Award
• Cool Site of the Day
• PA Destination of the Day
• Endorsed by Harrisburg Patriot, Scranton Times,
  Pottsville Republican
• 3 Thumbs Ups from PoliticsPA
• Greater Philadelphia PR Association Pepperpot
  Honoree
• Nominated for Webby Award, Golden Dot

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Pennsylvania's model -- a traditional civic
group combining forces with cutting-edge website
developers, creating an environment in which
issues, at last, have a chance to be heard -- may
have the appeal to spread nationwide in the next
years.

• Neal PeirceWashington Post Writers Group

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Spend some time at the IssuesPA Web site
There's a nifty tool there that will allow you to
compare the candidates at length

• Pottsville Republican

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Its rather unusual for a newspaper to endorse
an inanimate object in an election campaign, but
IssuesPA.net deserves that recommendation

• Scranton Times-Tribune

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A Civic Treasure

• The Harrisburg Patriot News

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Lessons from our experience
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Good content remains the key to success

• No substitute for
• High quality research
• Well-written analysis
• But
• PEL no longer does reports
• Repurposing content not easy
• Most research to date has been original
• Requires time and commitment of staff

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If a tree falls in a forest

• Cannot neglect or ignore public/media relations
• Evaluate internal capacity if needed, hire help
• Make the media your friend
• Understand their pressures
• If possible, give them more than they need
• Ask them for their input
• Events, polls drive traffic

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Presentation matters

• 3rd iteration of IssuesPA website
• Internet is always evolving
• User needs are always changing
• Shape website to meet user needs listen to them
  often
• Graphics, pictures help tell a story
• Hard to find, format
• Dont underestimate time it takes to prepare
  materials

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Website Permanent Campaign

• Stale websites take up cyberspace
• If you want people to come back, you have to give
  them fresh content on a regular basis
• Think both push and pull
• Dont expect that if you put a website up anybody
  will come

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Final Thoughts

• Remember your end goals
• Dont underestimate costs, time, effort required
  and budget for that
• Be ready for next phase or plan for a graceful
  ending

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Making the Issues Matter

• The IssuesPA Story
• The Pennsylvania Economy League