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RNC media types get cold weather, warm welcome at Xcel
The national media collected info about next year's GOP convention, along with chocolate mousse and shrimp. Bloggers may get spots, too, especially if they blog right.
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Does your TV news anchor need a special suite overlooking the Republican National Convention at the Xcel Center next September? It could run you up to $37,338.
Looking to use your blogger reputation to get press credentials to cover the convention? It wouldn't hurt to be a conservative.
With 15,000 media employees expected in town Sept. 1-4, 2008, convention organizers gave a logistics preview Monday to more than 400 national news media representatives at the Xcel.
No Katie sightingsMany of the media at the Xcel were editors, producers and technical people with no Katie Courics and Wolf Blitzers among them. These were the folks who calculate what kind of workspace they'll need, where they'll string their wires and set up their cameras.
A cold greetingThe single-digit temperatures left some media visitors breathless -- or at least able to see their breath -- when they ventured from their hotels to go to the Xcel to learn about the convention. "I thought, 'Thank God, it's going to be in September,'" said William Goldschlag of the New York Daily News.
X-ing out Xcel"We're going to tear the building apart," promised Andrew Richard, a project manager for Freeman, the convention's general contractor. Freeman will take charge of "building out" the Xcel, including reconfiguring suites for hockey games into broadcast booths. Prices start at $4,368 and rise to the $30,000 range. But it's cheaper than the 2004 GOP convention in New York City. And when it's all over, "we put it back so it looks like we haven't been here," Richard said.
The heavy hittersCNN had seven staffers here, Time Magazine had four and the New York Times had six. No one knows whether to expect a ho-hum coronation or a convention floor fight. "We have to be ready for anything," said Anne Brown, a CNN producer.
A feeding frenzyJournalists were treated to cupcakes topped with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla mousse, offered up by Xcel's Wildside Caterers before the information session. Afterward, they retreated to a media party to munch on mounds of beef and shrimp and drink free liquor.
The politics of bloggingThe U.S. House and Senate galleries will issue convention media credentials to bloggers if they are employed by news organizations. Asked how the party would handle independent, partisan bloggers, Matt Burns, a Republican Convention spokesman, said the GOP party would take care of more conservative bloggers first, then consider others. How about the liberal group MoveOn.org? he was asked. Said Burns, "No comment."
Randy Furst • 612-673-7382
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