Advertising, Net -- Not Cable -- Playing Big Role in Presidential Bids

PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL CLINTON HAS MOST WEB VISITORS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jeremy Pelofsky]
With a wide open field among Democrats and Republicans ahead of the November 2008 election, candidates are already spending millions of dollars on advertising and the Internet to draw support before the nominating contests early next year. Sen Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has largely steered clear of traditional radio and television advertising in her presidential campaign, instead nurturing the Internet audience and drawing the largest number of online visitors. Sen Clinton had the most visitors to her Web sites in August, almost 760,000, compared to her rivals, but she ran only about 2,200 radio and television spots so far this year, according to Nielsen data released on Monday. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), who has consistently run second in national polls, was a close second in the number of Web page visitors with about 750,000 in August, but ran almost double the number of radio and television spots this year with 4,300. The Democrat who ran the most television and radio spots was Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) with about 6,000. He has mostly registered in the single digits in polls. He had 103,000 Web site visitors in August, Nielsen found. Among Republicans, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who officially joined the presidential race in September, had the most separate visitors to his Web site in August, with some 410,000, according to Nielsen.
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN1535252220071015

* Presidential Candidates Shun Cable Advertising
Both Republicans and Democrats competing in 2008 presidential race have largely ignored national cable networks and local cable systems in their attempts to woo voters through political advertising, according to a report from Nielsen Co. Almost 95% of the total 28,725 presidential campaign ads purchased by candidates this year were on local TV stations, and more than 71% of those were placed in Iowa, Nielsen said Monday.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6491464.html?rssid=196

* Presidential Hopefuls Still Favor Local TV Ads
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003658398

* Romney outspends presidential rivals
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-money16oct16,1,1979066.story?coll=la-news-a_section