Three area TV stations - WRC-TV, WTTG-TV and WUSA-TV - have formed a local news service to pool video newsgathering resources. The move follows a similar one between Fox and NBC in Philadelphia and is growing to include the five markets where both own stations. In April, Fox struck a similar arrangement with The E.W. Scripps Co. to create a local news service in Detroit, Phoenix and Tampa. The bottom line goal of the move is truly the bottom line: Given tight economic times, these local news services save money.
The D.C. newsgathering operation, set to launch on June 15, like the others, creates an independent arm to determine which stories will be covered each day and arranges for the collection and delivery of video footage, usually for events that have historically been covered by multiple cameras, such as news conferences. Then each station uses the video as they see fit.
While the news-sharing concept may be new at the local level, it's been around for years at the network level, with "pooled" video being available for decades. In fact, at one time, there was an unwritten rule that, in some situations, if a news camera failed while covering a story, the "competition" would provide a dub of the event (based on the assumption that, at some point, one of their news camera would also fail). Call it professional courtesy.
For many in the PR profession, the new news service creates challenging consequences: At one time, the success of a news conference could be measured in the number of TV news crews that showed up. Under the new news structure, one crew may replace what traditionally had been three. Also, what happens if the "pooled" camera crew gets stuck in traffic and arrives 30 minutes late. In the past, the event could go on as scheduled because other news crews were there but what do you do when the "pooled" crew is the only one covering the event and is not there on time.