Candidates Woo South Florida's Small Business Owners

The front page of Wednesday's Miami Herald featured an article entitled, "Wooing Small Businesses," which highlights how "South Florida's small business owners are weighing the dueling plans offered by the presidential candidates." The homepage of Miami Herald.com also includes this article, but with a slighlty different headline, "Candidates Woo South Florida's Small Business Owners." I believe this headline is very effective for online journalism, compared to its orignal print headline, since it pinpoints who exactly is wooing the small business owners and defines the geographic location-both pertinent elements of the story.

Though the related content links of the print plus story are useful and insightful, they are not exactly "related" to the topic at hand. The three-picture slideshow (of a small business owner, McCain and Obama, respectively), which was also featured as part of the related links package, was not very effective. I would have preferred to have seen a narrated slideshow of several business owners providing an overview of their current econmic situation, which economic plan benefits them the most, and which candidate they are supporting. Or, perhaps the Herald could have featured a narrated slideshow of the presidential candidates themselves discussing their proposed economic plans. An audio clip of the candidates' speeches could have served as an alternative to video or slideshows, and might have been just as poignant.

The printed article encourages readers to log onto the Miami Herald website to obtain additional campaign coverage.. The Herald's Political Currents page is awesome! It is a wonderful multi-media, interactive site featuring everything from political polls and quizzes and campaign commentary to early voting maps and candidate updates.

Kudos to Miamiherald.com for coming up with an eye-catching headline for Tuesday's print story, "When Red Met Blue," a clever piece about coping mechanisms for couples with different political backgrounds. Though the online story headline did not have the same "When Harry Met Sally" vibe to it, it was still pretty catchy: "Love can Survive the Election, even for Political Opposites."