Our staff has put a lot of effort into planning news coverage of this weekend’s summit between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The summit, and Sunday’s demonstration in Kennebunkport, are major news events and we have several reporters and photographers scheduled to cover it throughout the weekend.

The coverage plan was developed by Matt Wickenheiser, our acting regional editor, and our York County staff – reporters Noel Gallagher, Seth Harkness and Anne Gleason and photographer Gregory Rec. In newspaper jargon, we call a coverage plan a “budget.” Here’s what the weekend story budget looks like for the Bush-Putin visit. Obviously it could change at a moment’s notice, depending on what develops over the weekend.

Saturday’s paper:
1. Local Russians talk about Putin’s visit, their thoughts on his government and its relationship with the United States.
2. What are some of the protest groups that are planning to descend on Kennebunkport Sunday, why are they coming and what work goes into planning a large-scale demonstration?
3. What’s the news out of Kennebunkport on Friday. As of this writing, it looks like Bush went fishing with his father, and merchants were benefitting from the tourists.

Sunday:
1. At such a critical time in U.S.-Russian relations, what does it mean that Bush has chosen to meet with Putin at Kennebunkport rather than at his Texas ranch or Camp David? What signal does it send?
2. A look at the historic relationship between the Bush family and the town of Kennebunkport.

Monday:
A report on Sunday’s Bush-Putin meeting and other stories as they develop.

Tuesday:
1. Live coverage from the Putin-Bush press conference. (We won’t actually be allowed to attend this. Instead, we’ll have to rely on the media “pool” report for our stories.)
2. A wrap-up story that looks at how the weekend went.

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