Tennessee’s Four Major Dailies Sharing Content And Coordinating Coverage

By Kleinheider Posted on March 8, 2009 at 9:13 pm

Editor & Publisher has posted a memo from Knoxville News Sentinel editor Jack McElroy which outlines a loose agreement by Tennessee’s four major daily papers, The Chattanooga Times-Free Press, the Nashville Tennessean, The Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Sentinel to share content.

The agreement, which began Wednesday of last week, would allow any of the four papers to use any story already published in one of the other papers in full in their print products. Online, however, only a headline and a snippet can be used with a link back to the original story.

According to the memo all stories “should be fully credited to the originating newspaper, with bylines naming writers and newspaper and shirttails or taglines telling how to contact writers.”

Coordination between editorial staffs is also discussed in the memo with each paper designating a “point editor” to coordinate with other papers. Further, individual subject editors are encouraged in the memo to work with their counterparts in the other organizations to exchange story budgets and communicate upcoming story ideas.

In order to share files, photos, etc. a common FTP site “may be established” according to the memo.

This agreement can be seen not only as a cost cutting measure to thin the herd of redundant reporters but also an end run around the Associated Press whose high fees in times of economic decline and industry upheaval have caused many newspaper organizations consternation.

However, the agreement is far from iron clad or even official, as the memo makes clear.

“This is intended to be an informal, handshake deal that any party may terminate at any time. We will endeavor to address any problems that might arise as they come up.”

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Tags: Associated Press, Chattanooga Free Press, FTP, Knoxville News Sentinel, media consolidation, Memphis Commercial Appeal, newspapers, sharing content, Tennessean