https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/27/republican-campaigns-local-news-lumen/
excerpt:
The online portal offers the potential for a new level of collaboration between political operators and certain media outlets — one in which candidates can easily seek to customize news stories without the public’s knowledge. The use of the tactic in Illinois has caught the attention of allies of former president Donald Trump, who have discussed the potential of expanding the operation, according to people familiar with the discussions.
The network is run by Brian Timpone, a businessman and former television broadcaster who told federal regulators in 2016 that his publishing company was filling the void left by the decline of community news, “delivering hundreds and sometimes thousands of local news stories each week.” He did not respond to requests for comment.
The Illinois-centric outlets form just one part of a broader network of sites, estimated to number more than 1,200 nationally, that the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University has connected to Timpone. The Lumen portal shares technical features, including an online performance tracking ID, with multiple sites that form part of what Priyanjana Bengani, a fellow in computational journalism at the Tow Center, described as Timpone’s extended network.
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While political operatives and others ensured access to Lumen for the top Republicans in the state, including the party’s candidates for governor and attorney general, major Democratic campaigns were unaware of the portal’s existence, according to those with knowledge of the situation.
In one example, the campaign of Darren Bailey, the Republican running to unseat Illinois’ governor, Democrat J.B. Pritzker, used the portal to pitch a story days before last November’s election about an endorsement from Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democrat and onetime congresswoman from Hawaii, according to documents reviewed by The Post. A story soon appeared in the Dupage Policy Journal, whose website describes itself as a product of Local Government Information Services.
The Dupage Policy Journal quoted Gabbard’s effusive comments about Bailey, ticked off Bailey’s other endorsements and reported that the GOP candidate was “honored” by the vote of confidence. Other Chicago-area outlets reporting on the Gabbard endorsement, by contrast, offered additional context. They noted that Gabbard had previously called Donald Trump, who was also backing Bailey’s run, “unfit to serve” and quoted Pritzker criticizing Gabbard as a “conspiracy theorist.” Bailey, who failed to unseat Pritzker, did not respond to a request for comment.
Timpone has spoken to two Trump allies about expanding his operation, according to people with knowledge of the interactions. The discussions suggest that Illinois could be a testing ground for much broader work leading into 2024. One person familiar with his comments said the conglomerate could seek to form “tens of thousands” of new websites.
The goal, one of the people briefed on the project said, is to create “center-right websites” in communities where there is “little or no local news.”
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The reach of the outlets is difficult to measure. But since its founding, Local Government Information Services has more than doubled its sites and also ramped up print publication. Last year, the growing presence of the Dupage Policy Journal and other papers in Timpone’s network caused the Illinois Press Association to release a statement clarifying that the nonpartisan association had not certified the outlets.
“Technology
has significantly lowered the barrier for entry into publishing,” the
statement warned,
Top Democrats, seeing Local Government Information Services papers increasingly appearing on doorsteps around Illinois, also objected, citing the network’s leadership and what they saw as its skewed coverage. At the time, the way stories were pitched through Lumen was veiled from public view.
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