EDITORIAL: Governor Pritzker Snubs Local Newspapers during “It Only Works If You Wear It” Campaign

EDITORIAL: Governor Pritzker Snubs Local Newspapers during “It Only Works If You Wear It” Campaign

BY CITIZEN’S EDITORIAL BOARD

When you hear the phrase, “This is not our first rodeo”, it is true. From not being included in the spending campaign budget during the Governors run for office in 2018, to his most recent announcement regarding the facial mask wearing campaign. The Governor’s decision-making committee seems to again cut out a major component to their campaign reach by excluding the Print Media.

There have been too many instances where the state of Illinois has decided to promote an initiative or deliver a critical paid message and newspapers were not part of the spending plan. If “we are good enough to deliver critical free messages to our prospective community, then why are we not good enough for the paid messages. That leaves a question for the team of decision makers, is there a study that shows the effectiveness of delivering of a free message over a paid message and what is its effectiveness?

The Governor has hired a lot of expert talent to guide his new $5 million “It Only Works if You Wear It” campaign to encourage Illinoisans to wear a mask. But we question do the decision makers understand the role that the press has played in the governor’s campaign from the beginning to present? Newspapers have informed his constituents of developments from his office weekly. There is no doubt that newspapers play a major role in keeping a democracy intact.

As we all attempt to bounce back from the, Pandemic, revenue generation is key. When officials around the country take to the mic daily to address their prospective strategies to combating COVID- 19 their focus is to help small business and to put people back to work. It seems virtually impossible to put people back to work or to run a business without financial stability.

Since the announcement of the Facial Mask Campaign, calls were made to the Governor’s Office elite team regarding how newspapers can become part of the media mix. We might share that calls and emails were flat out ignored. Many members of the Press were encouraged to email and call the Governor’s Office to at least start a dialogue as to why we should be included in the process.

As an essential business, not one day have gone by that Newspapers skip printing or covering the Governor’s updates on COVID- 19. Newspapers have always provided a fact-based lifeline of much needed information during critical times of crisis.

Finally, after a week of receiving no response to our inquiry as to “Why not include print media”, a member of our newspaper organization was allegedly told by a representative from the governor’s office that papers were included only to come back and state the reason for not including newspapers was that their goal is to reach a younger demographic and newspapers did not meet the requirement of inclusion. Ironically, a study conducted by Civis on behalf of the governor’s office showed that except for adults 65 and over there is little difference in mask wearing behavioral.

According to that same study “Mask wearing rates generally increase with age but remain high for all age groups.” Analytics and metrics are great, but how do you measure what is staring you straight in the face every single day? The analysts involved in this campaign should find a way to measure the impact that newspapers have had in communicating critical information sent by the governor’s office to our communities across the state. If conducted, that would be a very substantial metric!

Just so that the record shows, with over 400 newspapers in Illinois, 307 have accounted for the close to 3,000 times COVID-19 coverage from Capitol News Illinois - an initiative supported by Illinois newspapers were published.

Newspapers in Illinois deserve better treatment from the governor and his staff. The office of the governor has relied on print journalists to deliver timely fact-based information during his campaign and during uncharted times. Do not respect or use us when you need us, respect protocol, and do what’s right. If nothing else show enough respect to return calls timely, discontinue avoiding the conversation and reply to the many emails sent to your office regarding inclusion in the “spending campaigns” as well as “free press”.

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