Posted by chicagomedia.org on May 12, 2009 at 07:13:52:
Crew-pooling by Ch. 5, Ch. 32, Ch. 9 and Ch. 2 off to smooth start
Sharing of footage not obvious in local newscasts
May 12, 2009
LEWIS LAZARE | Chicago Sun-Times
Monday marked the first day that four of Chicago's largest TV stations began pooling camera crews and sharing news footage. So far the change was hard to see.
The afternoon newscasts for those four stations -- NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5, Fox-owned WFLD-Channel 32, Tribune Broadcasting-owned WGN-Channel 9 and CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 -- still retained a surprisingly large degree of individuality, as did the early news for the one station that did not sign on for the pool newsgathering venture, ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7.
The four stations this month announced they would pool camera crews and share editors to coordinate the assignments.
Perhaps because no one or two big stories dominated the news on Monday, each of the four participating stations put their early newscasts together in a way that highlighted different stories. None involved the mayor or was keyed in a major way to rote press conferences.
All of the stations touched at some point on Iran's release of Northwestern University alumna Roxana Saberi, but each station handled the story a bit differently. Most stations decided to send one of their own reporters and camera crews to Northwestern to interview students and professors at the university's Medill School of Journalism, where Saberi studied.
It was apparent, however, that several of the stations participating in the pool venture used some of the same footage for a story about baby bottles containing the harmful chemical BPA. Ald. Manny Flores (1st) held a news conference related to the matter, and a shot of Flores in front of a microphone was the same on several stations.
WLS General Manager Emily Barr wasn't expecting to see a lot of similarity in today's newscasts.
"I think it will take several days at least before we begin to get a good sense of how this is going to play out," she said.