The name Local News Service refers to a variety of news resource share services all started in 2008 and 2009. It sometimes does not refer to a specific sharing service but to the category in general. Typically, these services include pooling video crews to cover routine events and sharing

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s used for newsgathering. For 2009, the biggest development for local TV was content pooling. NBC-Fox partnerships are called Local News Service.

History

Since 2000, Fox News, ABC and CBS have been partners in a national news pool partnership. In January 2009, NBC Local Media and

Fox Television Stations Fox Television Stations, LLC (stylized as FOX TV STATIONS; also known as FTS) is a group of television stations in the United States owned-and-operated by Fox Corporation. It owns LiveNOW from Fox, Fox Local, and Fox Soul. It also oversees ...

set up the first Local News Service with their Philadelphia stations after testing since the summer 2008. Fox and NBC then added other markets where they both own stations. In March, the first local news pool not formed by the NBC-Fox alliance was formed in Columbus, OH by Media General's WCMH-TV and

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...

's WSYX and WTTE. On April 1, Fox Stations entered into its first pooling agreements without NBC in Phoenix (

KSAZ-TV KSAZ-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division alongside KUTP (channel 45), which airs MyNetw ...

) with Scripps' KNXV-TV and Meredith's

KPHO-TV KPHO-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside independent stations KTVK (channel 3) and KPHE-LD (channel 44), a group known together as "Arizona's Family ...

and in Detroit ( WJBK) with Scripps's

WXYZ-TV WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside independent station WMYD (channel 20). The two stations shar ...

. The Fox (

WFLD WFLD (channel 32) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed WPWR-TV (channe ...

)-NBC ( WMAQ-TV) partnership on May 11 started its Chicago pool its first with outside members:

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the Tribune of the Plebs, tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs ac ...

WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is sister station, sister to the company ...

and CBS's WBBM-TV. On June 29, 2009, six weeks after the start of the Atlanta group,

WGCL-TV WANF (channel 46) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is the flagship property of locally based Gray Media and is co-owned with CW affiliate WPCH-TV (channel 17) and low-power, Class A Telem ...

exited the pool as they considered it restraining their ability to differentiation. The Orlando local news service launched July 16, 2009 is the first to include a local news cable channel, Central Florida News 13.

Issues

There is some concern that these agreements will cause local news coverage to be overly similar "or will enhance it." The involved stations claim that it will help the stations by allowing more specialized reporting by not tying up resourcing for routine events. Many of the stations involved have reduced news staff due to decreased advertising revenue. Fracturing audiences will continue the revenue decline and the need to continue to reduce costs. These partnerships are a natural solution along with outsourcing and other partnerships and content sharing to the revenue decline. However, the member stations may use the local news services as a reason for even more reduction in personnel. Others say that it will be difficult for rivals to work together.

News share services

a. Also share in an "aerial news footage partnership" h. Helicopter shares 1. WANF, then called WGCL-TV, dropped out of the news share pool.

Helicopter shares only

References

{{Television news in the United States 2008 in American television 2009 in American television 2008 introductions 2009 introductions Television news in the United States

History

Issues

News share services

Helicopter shares only

See also

References