Former newspaper rivals cooperate as jobs are cut
NEW YORK —
Just a dozen years ago, newspapers on either side of Arlington, Texas, fought fiercely for every reader in the fast-growing city, expenditure millions of dollars to expand their staffs and cover the smallest meetings and sporting events.
So it came as a surprise that The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram started sharing photos and concert reviews in November.
But these are unprecedented general condition of affairs.
As readers and advertisers migrate to the Internet and the stumbling economy cuts deeply into revenues, news organizations are redefining what it income to compete. In recent months, papers surrounding the nation have tried to lessen their staff cuts by dint of. forging partnerships with former rivals.
“In the old days, all of us were involved in the same stories,” said Tony Pederson, a former Houston Chronicle executive editor and now journalism presiding officer at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “When there was a big news event in Texas or nationwide, everybody was in that place. Now, that’s not the case.”
The sharing has intensified as newspapers stepped up job reductions and slashed travel budgets, and such arrangements are more palatable than closing news bureaus or dropping some coverage areas altogether.
All three major daily newspapers in South Florida formed a loose firm, while five papers in Maine and eight in Ohio are sharing which they gather and produce. Fox and NBC television stations plan to share video, and The Washington Post and The Sun in Baltimore announced a collaboration on Maryland coverage in late December.
In doing to such a degree, readers could lose another choice expressed, and journalists their competitive take in a carriage.
“It efficiency be every ideal situation in a perfect world to obtain four or five diurnal newspapers each covering the same public hearings, and then comparing the coverage and probably learning something different in each story,” said Mark Woodward, executive editor of the Bangor Daily News, which began cooperating with other Maine newspapers in September.
But cooperation is a necessary come to an understanding “to conserve your resources and still be a servant your men,” Woodward reported.
Many of the deals involve coverage of routine events such like news conferences, and papers sometimes disclose ahead of time which they chart to defence. Papers give full credit for items used, and no money changes hands. In some cases, papers restrict online use and informally agree not to run certain items from the other.
The Dallas and Fort Worth papers started cooperating in October by distributing each other’sitting papers to redeem on passing over costs. The detente on the business side paved the tendency of action as antidote to the two to begin sharing photos and such features as concert reviews. Talks continue on expanding the exchange.
Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008589082_apnewscompetition.html?syndication=rss
