USA TODAY to Deliver Innovative, Interactive Election Coverage

McLEAN, Va., Oct. 31, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- USA TODAY will deliver industry-leading election coverage featuring innovative, interactive and exclusive analysis of the midterm elections. USA TODAY is partnering with Twitter to create the USA TODAY/Twitter Political Issue Index, an interactive visualization of political tweets on a range of key issues. The index shows, in real-time, the issues voters find important.

Built by USA TODAY and using data from Twitter, the index captures the most relevant terms from tweets focused on a variety of political-only topics. The index is a daily compilation of those tweets and can be broken down by demographics -- including age, gender and geography -- and shown in USA TODAY's familiar, visual and reader-friendly way.

In addition to the USA TODAY/Twitter Political Issue Index, USA TODAY election coverage also includes:

• Exclusive Polling -- through partnerships with Suffolk University and Pew Research. For each poll, web videos are created.
• Web-exclusive Election Night Coverage -- beginning at 8 p.m. (ET) and running throughout the night, this livestream on USATODAY.com will include segments from the USA TODAY newsroom featuring political pundits and USA TODAY experts. In partnership with Gannett Broadcasting, all the key races across the country will be covered, including live reports from our local stations and campaign headquarters. Coverage will be viewable across mobile, tablet and desktop devices on USATODAY.com, all Gannett's local broadcast and publishing sites.
• USA TODAY's Political Ad Tracker -- an iPhone app from the USA TODAY Network, in partnership with FactCheck.org, enabling users to watch, read analysis of and vote on how believable political ads are across the country.
• Elections Forecast Tool -- features candidate information for every race for U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and governor. Created with the help of Gannett Digital, this interactive feature shows up-to-the-minute USA TODAY projections of winners. On Election Night, the interactive will turn into a results page.
• "5 Things You Need to Know" -- a daily feature dedicated to the election as well as a viewing guide on how to watch the election. These series are intended for readers who do not follow politics closely year-round and provide detailed information on what is important, why and what it means if a certain candidate wins.

"USA TODAY is delivering election coverage in a smarter, faster, more creative and interactive way," said Larry Kramer, president and publisher, USA TODAY. "With our national and local assets, Gannett has a huge footprint across the country that allows us to share resources and deliver the most relevant and real-time content across multiple platforms to the most voters."

USATODAY has also been producing weekly videos for the web and mobile covering various election topics including the battle for the Senate, tracking the governor's races and weekly top headlines, as well as podcasts featuring USA TODAY reporters around political stories and interactive graphics. The publication, which is number one in circulation, has also produced election-themed content daily both in print with reporters in the field covering races across the country.

USA TODAY is a multi-platform news and information media company. Founded in 1982, USA TODAY's mission is to serve as a forum for better understanding and unity to help make the USA truly one nation. Through its unique visual storytelling, USA TODAY delivers high-quality and engaging content across print, digital, social and video platforms. An innovator of news and information, USA TODAY reflects the pulse of the nation and serves as the host of the American conversation — today, tomorrow and for decades to follow. USA TODAY, the nation's number one newspaper in daily circulation with an average of more than 4.1 million daily, and USATODAY.com, an award-winning newspaper website launched in 1995, reach just under seven million readers daily. USA TODAY is a leader in mobile applications with 20 million downloads on mobile devices. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).

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