Local and community-based media this year are strategically using print to build engagement around their election coverage.

These election-focused flyers, postcards and print voter guides will add to the knowledge of how news organizations can deploy print to reach new audiences and deepen community ties. Examples this year build on others, such as using postcards to share explanatory and service journalism at THE CITY in New York City and inform solutions journalism at the Arizona Daily Star. Larger organizations like these have found uses as have smaller ones, such as East Boston Nuestra Casa and ZipIt.news, an inspiring effort in rural Ohio.

For our part, we’ll closely follow the 14 outlets incorporating a strategic use of print as part of our Election Engagement Experiment Fund, a recently announced series of grants awarded by API alongside Knight Election Hub. These outlets — including many nonprofit news sites and public radio stations — are using print to promote their nonpartisan voter guides, election coverage or other opportunities to engage.

We loved seeing this in part because grantees in our Election Coverage and Community Listening Fund, announced earlier this year, were already doing similar work. In a check-in this September, some said other local and community-based media may have time to act on the idea, too.

Louisville Public Media is mailing these statewide voter guides in mid-October.

“If organizations have the budget for mailing, it’s still probably not too late to get a simple postcard into mailboxes that can direct people to digital voter guides or election coverage,” said Gabrielle Jones, vice president of content at Louisville Public Media. The station is working with Kentucky Public Radio partners to expand their statewide voter guide information to engage rural communities including through print.

Flyering can also be an effective way to promote election coverage and create awareness for one’s brand and digital offerings. Seeing a flyer posted to a bulletin board as people “go about their day at the grocery store or the toy store” provides a touchpoint with their work that distinguishes it from other outlets and options for information, said Michaux Hood, development director at Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Both Louisville Public Media and Charlottesville Tomorrow use a QR code in their print item to point to digital projects and email sign-ups online. Several newsrooms will do similarly as they distribute their print products at community gathering spots — including libraries, senior centers and elsewhere.

Here are some tips for using postcards this election season, many inspired by our award recipients:

  • Find a flyering service. Some companies regularly distribute concert and other event posters or listings to bulletin boards around communities. Finding a service near you can prove inexpensive and save time for managing delivery. For Charlottesville Tomorrow, $700 covered the printing and distribution of 700 flyers related to the voter guide.
  • Use a direct mail company — or the USPS Every Door Direct Mail program.Others may find success with the USPS EDDM program, though Libbie Sparadeo, director of membership and engagement at VTDigger, says you should be aware that using EDDM in sparsely-populated rural areas may require a lot of driving. “It is more resource intensive in rural areas than we thought because you actually have to hand deliver your postcards to each of the local post offices that serve the different postal routes you’re targeting,” she told API. “You can’t drop off your postcards at a central state or regional postal hub.”
  • Team up for distribution. Local libraries, businesses and universities are among those who may help distribute your printed resources. In some cases, your collaborators may be good partners for distribution. The Austin Common plans to work with university students to share printed resources on any runoff election that may occur.

  • A postcard to promote VT Digger’s election guide.

    Graphic design doesn’t have to be complicated. Perhaps you’ll want to design your flyers in-house or work with a contract graphic designer for a project like this. Charlottesville Tomorrow has a strong brand identity, which allowed their flyer to be easily designed in Canva.  

  • Get creative with where you focus. Voting districts offer one built-in structure for any engagement or tailoring the journalism you promote, but projects can also focus on other groups relevant for other goals: e.g. focus on current members so they can pass along your voter information, former subscribers so they can see what’s freely available, or those who have attended events with you previously so they want to engage further.

Traditional voter guides aren’t the only thing that makes sense for print either. Consider these ideas:

  • Promote your post-election products and services. Do you have an email newsletter designed to help your community understand what happens after votes are cast and counted? Planned coverage around the impact of who wins a particular race? Consider these same tactics to help your post-election coverage stand out amid the information overload likely to occur this November. LAist shared tips on creating a topic-specific zine, from logistics to targeting audiences.
  • Focus on election administration and security, or other critical themes. Communities benefit from journalism beyond who wins or loses. WITF will use its grant to create a print product on election administration and security for distribution at community gathering places, informed by a virtual forum on the same theme. Consider what else your community may benefit from beyond the race results.
  • Push to in-person engagement on what happens next. Civic discourse doesn’t end at the ballot box. What events might you plan for after November elections that you could begin promoting now, alongside any nonpartisan journalism you plan to share?

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