Maryland Business

By: jackie.sauter

The Baltimore Sun certainly does get around. In the last six years it’s made three content- or staff-sharing deals with two local stations (twice with ABC affiliate WMAR-TV and once with NBC affiliate WBAL-TV and radio) and Tuesday announced yet another deal — this time with CBS affiliate WJZ –TV.

(The Sun is just one local news station short of hitting for the cycle…has someone notified the Fox affiliate WBFF-TV to stand by?)

Touted as a “content-sharing partnership,” The Sun will air WJZ’s local news videos and the two outlets will share story leads and partner on major journalistic projects, according to a station press release.

The Sun’s past collaborations with television stations have included journalists being featured or interviewed on WMAR’s evening news, and WBAL-TV’s chief meteorologist, Tom Tasselmyer, on the back page of the Maryland section and answering weather questions on The Sun’s Web site.

According to the release, WJZ’s sales team will be responsible for selling advertising inventory within WJZ video content on baltimoresun.com, and the station’s regional news coverage will include stories provided by The Sun’s four county bureaus, and WJZ will promote the newspaper’s top stories in its newscasts.

Content sharing between the organizations is expected to begin by the end of the month, and WJZ news video is expected to be available at The Sun’s Web site by mid-October.

Tim Franklin, editor and senior vice president of The Sun, said in the release that the move benefits readers because combining the two outlets’ resources provides “an even more comprehensive news report.”

But are some news readers concerned that “combining resources” really means that the same news will be rehashed on both outlets, effectively reducing the variety of news reported? What do you think?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer