The third part of an RTDNA/Hofstra University survey of local news found that 78.4 percent of stations provide content for at least one media outlet that is not their own station or website.
The bulk of content-sharing comes with local radio stations and mobile devices, but 25.1 percent of stations report sharing content with another station in their market. Another 10.1 percent report sharing content with stations in another market, and 9.9 percent share content with a cable channel.
The RTDNA/Hofstra study found that of the stations with shared service agreements, 78.5 percent of the shared content was reported to be information, compared to 35.5 percent that share pool video and 10.2 percent that share news helicopters.
Content-sharing at the local level has recently been under heavy scrutiny from media watchdog groups (like this one), who claim “photocopy journalism” has made local news less reliable.
Read the full results of the survey here.