In an interesting announcement, Ohio’s largest newspapers will be sharing their stories with each other’s websites. The newspapers from Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown will share their best stories every day. In explaining the partnership, the Plain Dealer admits how papers keep the best stories from the AP for as long as possible:
The way that news from The Plain Dealer and other big papers used to find its way around the state was this: We would report and write our stories, wait until late in the day, and then turn them over to the Associated Press. The AP would then either rewrite them into wire service story format for general consumption; report and write its own stories later; or decide that the news was not of statewide interest and do nothing. If we had a breaking-news story all to ourselves, we would try to keep it away from the wire until the following day. So did everyone else.
So, to bypass the game of waiting, the group of papers have this new partnership (questionably named OHNO – Ohio News Organization). In the end, it seems like the readers of the sites are the winners, getting more comprehensive news coverage from across the state from the trusted reporters breaking the news on the scene. (Via Cyberjournalist)