WRC/4, WTTG/5 & WUSA/9 will form a common newsgathering service to provide pool news video for all three stations, reports the Washington Post.
The new operation, to be called Local News Service, will be headquartered in WUSA/9's news building but operate independently of all three stations. Teams of videographers will be sent out each day to tape pool footage for the service. WJLA/7 & NewsChannel 8 will not be part of LNS.
Of course, the impetus of this new arrangement is to reduce costs at a time when advertising revenue has decreased for media outlets across the board. All three stations will continue to operate their own separate news operations in addition to LNS.
It's not hard to imagine a scenario though in which the presence of LNS could result in further reductions in force for those individual outlets. The danger for D.C. area news viewers is that as news outlets become more alike in the name of cost-cutting, the full range of distinct voices may narrow to the point of being lost entirely.
______________________Labels: media, news, television, wrc, wttg, wusa
