Print-broadcast journalism collaboration

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Gordon HastingsFive years ago I attended a media think tank hosted by the management of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The guest speaker was Bill Keller who was then the executive editor of the New York Times, a position from which he stepped down in 2011 to return to becoming a full time writer for the Times.


The eruption of the financial crisis facing many papers across the nation was gaining full force at the time of Keller’s talk. The Boston Globe, which was then owned by the Times (Now owned by a group of Red Sox principals) was in particular financial stress as was the case at the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times and many smaller newspapers throughout the country. Draconian cutbacks were taking place in newspaper newsrooms, and those cutbacks and closings continue today.

During the Q&A following Keller’s talk I asked if he felt a possible solution to maintaining strong print editorial departments was collaboration with television stations and local cable news channels in the local marketplace. Would the sharing of personnel allow for a bolstering of local news coverage and investigative reporting in both mediums?

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