NEW DELHI, August 29: Most news directors are willing to share at least some of their planning and content with their partner, but they appear to be leery about sharing too much. These facts came to light through a study 'Television Newsroom Partnership Survey' conducted by researchers of the Centre for Media Design, Ball State University, United States. This was the first ever study of television news directors regarding their station’s convergence routines in the US.
At the same time, the study found, news directors report they are sharing some planning of special projects and the costs of those projects with their partners. Those sentiments nearly echo those of newspaper editors from 2004 study of the country's daily newspaper editors.
News directors were asked which of a series of statements best described how they shared information with their partners. Their responses:
- 14.9 per cent say they share all stories with their partner.
- 15.8 per cent share most stories but request that they run some stories before their partner runs them.
- 9.6 per cent share most stories but hold back stories on which they have a competitive advantage over their partner.
- 32.5 per cent are selective in what they share.
- 27.2 per cent never share.
Those results were supported by other findings in the study. Specifically:
- Television stations are more likely to share partial lineups of stories they are planning to run than they are to share a complete lineup. While 29.5 per cent say they share a complete lineup with their partner at least once a week, 34.6 per cent say they share a partial lineup at least a once week. Similarly, while 50.9 per cent say they never share a partial lineup of stories, 65.2 per cent say they never share a complete lineup.
- At least once a week, 39.3 per cent update their partner throughout the day on the progress of stories they are reporting. Slightly more 45.5 per cent say they never update their partners.
- Newsrooms are likely to share video or photographs if one of the partners misses or chooses not to cover a story. Nearly a third of news directors 27.7 per cent vs. 21.6 per cent of editors say they do so at least weekly.
- Although almost two-thirds of news directors 64.3 per cent say they never share physical resources, such as allowing a newspaper photographer to ride in the station’s helicopter or work from a bureau office, 28.7 per cent say they do so at least once a month.
- Although more than 44.6 per cent of respondents never share the cost of special projects or investigations with their partners, 6.3 per cent do so at least once a month and more than a quarter 25.1 per cent do so at least four times a year.
For the television study, news directors were contacted at 732 stations in the US. Results are based on 231 responses, a response rate of 31.1 per cent. The newspaper study was sent to editors at 1,452 daily, English-language newspapers in the US. The results are based on 372 responses, a response rate of 25.6 per cent.
