Lifetime Networks launched its fifth, award-winning, nonpartisan, multiplatform Every Woman Counts campaign to engage women in the political process as voters and future candidates. As a centerpiece of the initiative, Lifetime has formed the first-ever Every Woman Counts Coalition of women's media and advocacy groups, in partnership with Hearst magazines Redbook, CosmoGIRL! and Marie Claire, and leading national nonprofit organizations representing more athan 10 million women. The unprecedented Coalition will reach and connect millions of women nationwide in efforts to get a record number of women to register and vote, to ensure that issues important to women are central to the national dialogue, and to encourage women to run for elected office at all levels.

First launched in 1992 and now entering its fifth presidential election cycle, the 2008 Every Woman Counts campaign will encompass the Networks' most extensive on-air programming, digital content and grassroots initiatives to date, including a town hall and a televised forum with presidential candidates focused on all of the issues critical to women and rarely discussed elsewhere, such as child care and early learning, domestic abuse, pay equity and women's health.

As a central feature of the campaign, Lifetime is going across the country asking women, celebrities and candidates what issue tops their agenda by completing the statement: "If I were president, I would..." The wide array of responses — collected on-camera, online and on postcards at grassroots events — will be highlighted in monthly on-air, broadband and Video-on-Demand (VOD) vignettes, will be shared with candidates throughout the campaign to get their responses to these issues, and ultimately will be delivered to the newly elected leaders in the White House and the Capitol in January 2009.

Throughout the 2008 election season, Lifetime will conduct national polls, hold training sessions for women to learn how to run for elected office at all levels, host special events at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, and kick off an unprecedented voter registration and turnout drive that will include an on-air, bilingual public service announcement campaign.

"We know that 35 million eligible women did not vote in 2004, and despite the fact that women are the majority of the population, they are significantly lacking in political representation at home, where women hold only 16 percent of the seats in Congress, and internationally, where the U.S. ranks 67th in the world," said Meredith Wagner, executive vice president, Public Affairs, Lifetime Networks. "By mounting our largest Every Woman Counts campaign to date, forming the first-ever nonpartisan women's media and nonprofit Coalition, and working with our distribution partners and sponsors, Lifetime hopes to change these statistics and ensure that women are heard on the campaign trail, in the media and in the halls of power. With our new CEO, Andrea Wong, on board and so invested in this effort, Lifetime is now expanding its important work of advocacy for women to make it more resonant than ever before."

"The goal of the Coalition is to reignite women's connection to politics by gathering our collective strength to get the political conversation firmly focused on the daily truths of women's lives in America," said Stacy Morrison, editor-in-chief, Redbook. "I know from talking with the readers of Redbook that women feel that politics isn't about their lives, and we aim to change that by helping women raise their voices."

"Business and Professional Women/USA is excited to work with Lifetime on the Every Woman Counts campaign and to join this groundbreaking Coalition to increase women's political participation and raise awareness of the issues women care about most, such as equity in the workplace, an issue very important to our members," said Deborah Frett, chief executive officer, Business and Professional Women/USA.

"This coming year will be historic for both women in politics and The White House Project. As we work to expand our signature Vote, Run, Lead program into 10 states, we look forward to being part of the Every Woman Counts campaign and this powerful Coalition," added Marie Wilson, president and founder, The White House Project.