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These maps, courtesy of something called the Echostar Knowledge Base, show the Nielsen's Designated Market Areas (DMAs) for the two big March 4th primary states. They're slightly out of date, but they give you a rough sense of how things work.
The key takeaway here is that Ohio is the much more top-heavy media
state. The top six markets in Ohio—Cleveland-Akron-Canton, Columbus,
Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, and Youngstown—cover 93% of the state's
population. By contrast, the top six in Texas—Dallas-Fort Worth,
Houston-Galveston, San Antonio, Austin, Brownsville-Harlingen-McAllen,
and Waco—cover only 80% 78% of the state. Getting to 93% requires reaching twelve thirteen of the state's twenty media markets. And of course many of the
Texas DMAs encompass three or four substantial newspapers,
often in towns that aren't exactly nearby.
This is all another way of saying that while polls show Hillary
Clinton holding a smaller lead in Texas, Barack Obama might have a more
difficult time getting enough local TV & newspaper coverage to close the
gap.
