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I have covered more election nights than I can remember over the years.
Pizza. Predictions. Parties.
Reporters typically start the evening with some newsroom pizza, banter about with their predictions and then head out to the parties.
Usually on election night, I zip around to parties asking for quotes from the winners and losers, snapping photos and trying to churn it all out quickly for the web and social media. It’s an art to capture the moments and be in the right place at the right time.
But this year it was different. I stayed back and managed a team out in the field as they tried to get all the scoops. And our small — but mighty — team came through.
We were at the two biggest races on the ballot. I sent reporters Tom Schultz and Kaitlin Sweeney out to Santa Maria to cover the Fifth District Santa Barbara County Supervisor’s race.
Schultz and Sweeney (a Sara Miller McCune News-Press Summer Fellow) split up and got photos and interviews with all three candidates, Ricardo Valencia, Maribel Aguilera and Cory Bantilan. They captured photos of the candidates, wrote quickly and kept me posted through quick communication. I edited the stories and put the pieces together for publishing on the web and social media.
Meanwhile, News-Press reporter Aston Smith spent the evening with Melinda Greene, who upset Joe Holland to win the Santa Barbara County Clerk-Recorder-Assessor’s seat. Smith (also a Sara Miller McCune News-Press Summer Fellow) captured some fantastic election night moments, including Greene celebrating with friends and family.
I then got all of their work up on the website and Instagram, where our posts received tens of thousands of views, and more than 100 people resharing our posts.
Election night reporting comes in flurries. It’s fast and furious, with a lot of waiting. We work hard and quickly, then wait for more election results to be posted. It’s fun, in a way only journalists can quite understand.
I’m proud of this team for daring to be bold and ambitious in its coverage. Our hard work always benefits the readers and audience.
We will do it all again this November, and I do plan to be out in the field covering the Santa Barbara City Council and mayor’s races — then racing back to the office to get it all done somehow. I don’t know exactly what that coverage will look like yet, but the News-Press will be there, eating pizza and capturing all the moments for all of you.
P.S. I am happy to speak to your organization about the Santa Barbara News-Press, a nonprofit community newspaper. I have spoken around town several times in the past few months.
I started at the newspaper as a young man in 1999, left for 20 years and then came back this year to help rebuild the News-Press for the next generation. If you’re interested, I would be thrilled to tell the story of where we have been, where we are now and where we’re headed. I love journalism and would love to share our story with you. Send me an email at jmolina@newspress.com, and I’ll be there.
Joshua Molina
News-Press Editor
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