WCPO and WXIX Announce Local News Share Agreement

From: John Kieswetter

Copying what is being done in other cities, Scripps’ WCPO-TV (Ch 9) and WXIX-TV (Ch 19) announced a “local news sharing agreement.” Basically, it means that they’ll work together and only send one camera crew instead of two to some press conferences, trials, meetings or possibly even high school football or basketball games. They established the partnership after looking at similar arrangements by Scripps stations in Cleveland, Detroit, Phoenix and Tampa, plus by other stations in Philadelphia, Washington DC, Dallas and Chicago.

The joint announcement says: Under the terms of the agreement, the two stations will share coverage of certain scheduled events permitting both news organizations to more efficiently use their newsgathering resources. Once launched, the stations will identify specific events and rotate the responsibility for covering those events. The stations can always choose to staff events with crews if the station feels the pool coverage will not be adequate for its needs. The agreement will be primarily used to cover routine court hearings, news conferences and public meetings.
“This will allow both stations to better utilize our talented journalists,” says FOX19 News Director Steven Ackermann in the press release. “Each day, we find ourselves with multiple journalists sitting in a courtroom or attending a news conference that could be recorded by one station and shared with the other.”