Roy Hewitt, sports editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, is testing the interest in sharing sports content nationwide. Many of you already share with newspapers in your state or region. This might lead to an opportunity to expand that to many newspapers throughout the country.
Please fill out the short survey below and e-mail to Roy at rhewitt@plaind.com.
Included is a FAQ on content sharing and how it works in Ohio.
___ I am very interested in exploring the idea of content sharing among sports departments.
___ I don’t know if I am interested, but I am willing to talk about content sharing.
___ I am not be interested at all in content sharing.
The professional teams we cover include:
__________________________________________________________________.
The college teams we cover include:
__________________________________________________________________.
Which sports?
___ Football
___ Men’s basketball
___ Women’s basketball
___ Baseball
___ Hockey
Other major sporting events we regularly staff include:
__________________________________________________________________.
Name: ____________________________________________________________.
Newspaper: _______________________________________________________.
Office phone: ____________________________________________________.
E-mail: __________________________________________________________.
Sports Content Sharing FAQs
Why would we want to share sports content with other newspapers?
There might come a time when it is necessary to save the high cost of paying a wire service for all the articles and agate that we now buy. Many newspapers are thinking about cutting out this service now. But there has to be an alternative to the many articles provided by a wire service. Every story cant be local or staff written.
Is this being done anywhere already?
Sure, many newspapers are sharing content. In Ohio, there are eight newspapers that have been exchanging articles for more than a year. More recently, the Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun have begun sharing, as well as the Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. We are now looking into expanding the Ohio network (known affectionately as OHNO, for Ohio Newspapers Organization) to other parts of the Midwest.
Why was this started?
We thought that, too often, stories our readers might want never moved on the wire service. Or it took too long for them to be moved. It seemed it would be better for all eight papers if they didn’t have to wait for a middleman.
How does it work?
We have a Web site hosted by The Plain Dealer that is password protected. Editors at each of the eight Ohio newspapers have sign-ons so they can post articles as well as copy others. Each department at the newspapers posts a budget every afternoon of articles they think another paper might want. We would rather post too much than too little. Then the articles are posted as soon as they are available.
How about game stories on deadline?
We move the stories as quickly as possible. Sometimes we move the running game story as well as the write-through because we are aware of the other newspapers deadlines. We all try to be as cooperative as possible. But we also know we aren’t a wire service. We don’t ask an NFL writer to move a game story immediately after a 1 p.m. game when we know the writer has to go to the locker room. That might be necessary at some point, but not now.
Aren’t you afraid of your competition stealing your stories?
We don’t believe our competition is another newspaper. We think our competition comes from other Web sites, both local and national. The one restriction is in sports between The Plain Dealer and The Akron Beacon-Journal. We can use each others stories in all parts of the paper except sports. They can still look at our sports budget each day and see what we are doing. But they also could look at our Web site because we often post our non-deadline articles as soon as we get them.
Are there other restrictions?
Because we want to be fair to the paper that originates the stories, when that story is posted on a Web site it is posted as a link to the original newspapers Web site. That way, the newspaper that produces the story gets the page views on their own site.
How much copy actually gets used?
The Columbus Dispatch now regularly uses our beat writers on the Indians, Cavaliers and Browns, rather than trying to cover the teams themselves. The same is true for other newspapers. The amount of stories used will, of course, depend on the space available after you put in all your staff stories.
Is this just a way to cut the number of writers you employ?
That hasn’t been true in our situation. Even though we could use any of the stories on Ohio State from the Dispatch, we still have our own writer living in Columbus and covering the Buckeyes.
Could this work on a national scale?
Yes, if there is cooperation from newspapers and sports editors. And it would take someone to coordinate it, at least in the beginning. It also would need the support of our editors and publishers. One problem to be solved would be use of stories that now are sold by supplemental wire services, such as Tribune and McClatchy. Would newspapers in those chains be able to exchange, for free, with other newspapers in this sports group?
How about agate?
There are at least two companies that provide all the agate you need, other than high school agate. Their services probably could be bought for less than what you now spend on agate, particularly if we approached them as a group. They also can provide some other coverage, including roundup information.
I don’t know if my paper would be interested or not. What should I do next?
Whatever your level of interest, please fill out the short survey. It will help me measure the level of interest around the country. You can give it back to me, Garry Howard or Jerry Micco here at the contest judging. Or you can e-mail or call me back at my office (rhewitt@plaind.com). If you have questions, I would be happy to try to answer them. Call me at (216) 999-4101.
