This chapter addresses the question, “Do presidential public activities affect the amount of news coverage that presidents receive in local newspapers?” The argument here is that local newspapers have become important for presidential public leadership. Presidents have increasingly turned their attention to gaining coverage in local newspapers because those newspapers have credibility with their readers, they have relatively large readerships, and presidents believe that they will generally garner better and more positive coverage from them than from the national news media. This chapter uses the Local Presidential News Database to assess the amount of news that presidents receive in local newspapers.

Before gauging the impact of presidential public activities, we need to assess the amount of local news coverage of presidents. Do local newspapers actually cover the president with enough frequency and regularity for presidents to view them as important complements in their public leadership strategy? If local newspapers do not report much news on the president, presidents cannot rely on them in their attempts to lead public opinion. The Local Presidential News Database indicates considerable presidential news coverage in local newspapers.

HOW MUCH NEWS COVERAGE DO PRESIDENTS WANT?

How much coverage do presidents seek from local newspapers? On the one hand, the more news there is about the president, the less news there will be about his competitors, such as leaders in Congress. The public may come to view the president as comparatively more important than other political leaders if there is a larger quantity of news about him.