Governor Raimondo

Governor Raimondo Kicks Rhode Island Old Media In The Teeth

Via NBC10/AP

Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo slammed Rhode Island’s biggest media outlets Tuesday for what she sees as critical or insufficient coverage of her administration.

Raimondo said at Brown University that she’s relying more on social media and spending a lot more time with “micro local media” in Rhode Island.


Here’s what the Gov had to say:

“It’s almost impossible to get the news out if you will, and we’re struggling, even in the short time I’ve been in government. I’ve been in public life for six years, six years ago when I started this, our local paper the Providence Journal was something many or most Rhode Islanders read, certainly all influencers read, that’s – it’s a shadow of its former self and not true, I think they’re down to sixteen reporters, so you can’t rely on that. Uh, news, Broadcast News, has become almost like talk radio. You know, I start, I do this one thing with live T.V. and it started out, even when I started two years ago, it was a nice back and forth and now they call it “going one on one with the Governor” like it’s all a fight, you know, motif. So we’re constantly trying to figure it out, we’re relying a lot more on social media, I’m investing a lot in building my Facebook presence. We find that people trust Facebook, people trust their friends, and it’s the only place they’ll really go and sort of hang out long enough to, you know, engage with the product. And it has to be much more hyper local, that’s also the only way that we’re learning, like I’m actually spending a lot more time with local, local, hyper, micro, local media in Rhode Island, because people do read that. But it’s a challenge, it’s a huge challenge, and we’re all figuring it out as we go.”

Well, well, well. Lookie here. Even Governor Raimondo knows that traditional media is on its way out in favor of social.

We find that people trust Facebook, people trust their friends, and it’s the only place they’ll really go and sort of hang out long enough to, you know, engage with the product. And it has to be much more hyper local, that’s also the only way that we’re learning, like I’m actually spending a lot more time with local, local, hyper, micro, local media in Rhode Island, because people do read that.”

Hmm. Which outlet fits the bill in Newport with the most engaged readership? More than the rest combined.

Oh and PS: for the record we don’t even pretend…

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