Public TV Station Tunes In to L.A. Mayoral Race

0

The Web team at public TV station KCET (Channel 28) has put a high-tech twist on the old journalism advice to “follow the money.”

In this case, it’s tracked the tens of millions of dollars that have gone into L.A.’s many political races – particularly the mayoral campaign – and turned them into an interactive graphic on its news site.

The charts, which were built by a team of 12 reporters and editors, illustrate both the fundraising and expenditures of each candidate. In the mayoral primary, the two leading cash generators were, unsurprisingly, Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel, who will face each other in the May 21 runoff. The graphics show vividly how the two are responsible for two-thirds of all donations and spending.

Although the information about the campaign donations is made freely available on the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission website, that doesn’t mean it’s easy for the average citizen to grasp.

“We wanted to be able to represent the information in a way that’s easier to digest than just text and numbers,” said Brian Frank, KCET’s Web editor. “The point was to take the data and analyze it for the public.”

Unfortunately for the team doing the tracking and graphing, city data has some limitations. When making a political donation, a person needs only to list their name, not the organization they might be donating on behalf of. It makes it a bit difficult, then, to see if any special interest groups are exerting particular influence on a race or candidate.

“The way the info is tracked, there’s still a secretiveness,” Frank said. “Oftentimes we can only verify the identity based on a couple of pieces of info. We wanted to list everybody, that way you can go through and see who’s giving money and how much people are taking.”

Spin Cycle

In February, when Buzzmedia revealed it was laying off employees, there were murmurs that the move was part of an overall rebranding effort by the online content owner.

Those rumors turned out to be true, as the Hollywood company announced last week it was officially changing its name to SpinMedia.

The name was taken from Spin.com, a music-pop culture site the company acquired in 2012.

In an interview with the Business Journal, SpinMedia Chief Executive Steve Hansen explained that taking the Spin name was a way to leverage the magazine’s brand of “cutting-edge, contemporary culture.”

Along with the name change, SpinMedia rolled out a new website, Hearts & Foxes, that’s designed to appeal to teenage girls.

SpinMedia, which recently closed a $15 million fundraising round, also owns music site Idolator and celebrity gossip site Celebuzz.

PR Pickups

The growth of companies in Silicon Beach has brought along a handful of firms providing services to the startups. The Business Journal has previously reported on new tech-oriented law firms and financial service providers that are popping up in the area.

Now, public relations firms have begun flocking to the area. In recent months, Sparkpr and more recently TheMix Agency, both based in San Francisco, have set up local outposts with the intention of representing tech firms.

The companies join an already robust list of agencies, including Moxie and Brew Media Relations, that have picked up clients in Silicon Beach.

Tech Titles

Beverly Hills social networking site Myspace Inc. has named Christian Parkes vice president of global marketing. Parkes had worked as marketing director for Levi Strauss & Co. … Encino’s USamp has named Robert Clancy senior director of insights and strategy. Clancy previously worked for PepsiCo Inc. and J.C. Penny Co. Inc. as a director leading groups that specialize in consumer insights. USamp is an enterprise software form that focuses on consumer surveys and polling. … Pasadena ad tech firm OpenX has named Matthew Reid its new vice president of marketing. Reid previously worked in the same position for Gehry Technologies, a Playa Vista company associated with Frank Gehry’s architecture firm.

Staff reporter Tom Dotan can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 263.

No posts to display