{"id":215031,"date":"2020-11-01T13:58:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T17:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/?p=215031"},"modified":"2021-07-02T14:04:14","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T18:04:14","slug":"city-limits-made-a-voter-guide-for-judicial-elections-and-readers-loved-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/city-limits-made-a-voter-guide-for-judicial-elections-and-readers-loved-it\/","title":{"rendered":"City Limits Made a Voter Guide for Judicial Elections \u2014 and Readers Loved It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The presidential election might have dominated the headlines in 2020, but it was another race that delivered City Limits its highest-performing post last month: New York City\u2019s judicial<\/em> elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Limits<\/a> is a 44-year-old nonprofit newsroom in New York City that specializes in \u201cwonky, deep, longer-form journalism,\u201d says Jarrett Murphy, the organization\u2019s executive editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So a voter guide that explains the wonky world of judicial races and state bar approvals is very on-brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the numbers are still eye-popping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, the City Limits judicial ballot guide<\/a> racked up nearly 81,000 page views, which is six times <\/em>more than the site\u2019s other top-performing posts received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat guide drew an astounding level of traffic,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI think it\u2019s an information gap we should do even more to fill in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Limits (a LION member<\/a>) also partnered on a collaborative New York City voter guide<\/a> this year, and it launched a weekly newsletter, CityVote 2020<\/a>, to provide in-depth local coverage leading up to Election Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what did Murphy and his team learn? Here are three takeaways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Partnerships can be worth the effort, especially if you repeat them.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the fourth straight year, City Limits partnered with Gotham Gazette and WNYC to build an interactive voter guide that lets local residents type in their address and see a breakdown of the races in their area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collaboration helped City Limits expand the reach of its in-depth reporting, while also allowing it to benefit from WNYC\u2019s capacity, as a larger organization with its own tech team, to build a custom embeddable widget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because the same partners have worked together for four years, they didn\u2019t need to spend much time building rapport or establishing ground rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve definitely had partnerships that become incredible time-sucks,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cBut in this case, we\u2019ve already built trust and familiarity,\u201d and that helps the process go smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Election coverage should serve your readers and<\/em> your organizational goals.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First and foremost, City Limits wanted its election coverage to provide a public service and address voter information needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Murphy also knew exactly what he wanted City Limits to gain in the process:<\/p>\n\n\n\n