Facebook, ABC News Team Up on Campaign Coverage

ABC News Campaign Reporters to Have Facebook Profiles, File Constantly

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/26/2007 12:07:00 PM

The trend toward network-news operations melding with online communities continued, as ABC News said Monday that it was teaming up with Facebook to deliver political-campaign-related content to the site's 56 million users.

The joint venture includes debate forums, online surveys and access to ABC News political reporting, including campaign-trail video.

Campaign reporters will have Facebook profiles and will be expected to file dispatches not only from major events and speeches, but during what in past years would have been down time. "Whether at a major speech or waiting to board yet another campaign plane," the network said, "ABC News reporters will take Facebook users through the daily ups and downs of presidential campaigns."

"We thought it would be a great opportunity for us to make available to the people already having the ongoing discussion and debate on Facebook the full range of ABC News political reporting," ABC News president David Westin said in announcing the effort Monday.

It will be a two-way street, he added, saying that discussions and reactions from Facebook users "will play into how ABC News approaches its coverage of campaign events."

In addition, ABC said that it would team with Facebook and Hearst-Argyle's WMUR-TV New Hampshire on two debates airing on Jan. 5 on the eve of the primary there.