A thought on newspapers

March 5, 2012 at 4:36 pm

There’s a dirty little secret in local broadcast news that no television or radio writer or producer wants you to know: Local broadcast news stories are often “inspired by” or “borrowed from” the local newspaper. This ultimately hurts newspapers as people turn to television, radio and their web counterparts for news.

What if newspapers embraced the idea that television, radio and other mediums borrow from them by operating part of their news service as a local wire? Along with their daily digest on paper and their real-time dotcom product, newspapers could repurpose their print and photos for use by TV, radio and other dotcom properties. Newspapers, which are some of the most-connected organizations on a community level, could take it a step ahead by providing other media orgs with contact information, breaking news tips, etc.

Local TV, radio and web-only sites are already borrowing from the papers anyway; why not sell them what they’re already consuming, but better?

Jazz76

Why would they pay for something they’re already getting for free? Also, I don’t know if this is a “dirty little secret?” This has been known for years.

ProducerMatthew

“Why would they pay for something they’re already getting for free? ”

Because more often than not, they’re not getting it for free. A newspaper subscription still costs money, and many newspaper sites are erecting paywalls (or launching “memberships”) for their content. Even if you just pick up one newspaper a day for the newsroom, you’re paying 50 cents to $1.

My point is, news organizations are borrowing ideas from the paper and they’re not paying what they should for these stories. Meanwhile, people are turning to radio and television to hear and watch stories come alive that originated with print. Rather than battle against this, newspapers need to embrace the idea and start figuring out ways to package their content for broadcasters while continuing to deliver their product to general news consumers.

“This has been known for years.”

I disagree. Unless they read the newspaper every day, the average news consumer doesn’t know the story they’re hearing on the radio, reading on the web or watching on the 5 o’clock news is borrowed from the paper. And figures over the past several years that show declining newspaper subscription levels show many do not.

Jazz76

I was referring to anyone working in the media knows TV
etc. take story ideas from newspapers. This has been going on for decades and
back in the 80’s led to some intense feuds between varying media outlets. Print
reporters are still some of the best at digging up a story in my humble
opinion. You now see local newspaper publications producing more local video content,
which is a trend I believe is going to continue.

Agree re: subscription costs, paywalls, memberships etc. -
though these are written off business expenses. Television viewership is in
decline in addition to newspaper subscription levels as you mentioned. It’s a
complex situation overall and the creation of a profitable revenue model is
required in these changing times. Partnerships are definitely part of any business
strategy these days. Whether or not a local broadcast news organization would
pay for a local wire service and/or newspapers getting into providing such a service,
my first question would be the costs to the newspaper(s) in
establishing/distributing such a service and whether they did their math and
found it to be a profitable venture overall.

It is an interesting
concept though.
http://twitter.com/TauhidChappell Tauhid Chappell

I like where you’re going with this. I think it’d be helpful if print could also provide TV stations with video (given that there’s enough resources/staff) otherwise a story with a simple CG or full graphic may not be used on-air vs a repurposed print story with video included (could be sold for more money too). Radio/online though would be possible.

I honestly didn’t know that TV borrowed from print stories until my first internship. I was a bit shocked, but soon understood that sometimes a station could add some visual element to a print story.

Like I keep hoping, one day a TV station will merge with a newspaper newsroom to create an all-purpose station that has the resources, staff and ability to circulate stories across multiple mediums and platforms within the same newsroom.

ProducerMatthew

The FOX affiliate in Hartford merged with the Hartford Courant a few years ago to create a single newsroom that serves both a major newspaper and a local news powerhouse. The Tribune-owned newspaper and TV station is doing well in that market.

craignewman

Actually, we run the Sun-Times Media Wire, a service made available to all regional media outlets, excluding the Trib. It’s your basic mix of cops, breaking news and some repackaged news features. It’s widely used by TV and radio, among others. And while we don’t get traffic off the wire stories they take, we do get a credit.

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A thought on newspapers

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