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Unique news arrangement between strong KOLD and less-strong KMSB
LATER THIS WEEK, a dozen newsroom denizens from Belo's KMSB Tucson will have relocated to the building belonging to Raycom rival KOLD, while 18 or so sales professionals representing KMSB will follow in about a month.
Shared services agreements, such as the new one in Tucson, are not uncommon to rival TV stations, but the one between Belo and Raycom in Arizona is nevertheless unique. All of the stations involved - Belo's FoxMyNetworkTV duopoly KMSBKTTU; Raycom's CBS affiliate KOLD; and a batch of subchannels (Belo has This TV and Estrella TV in Tucson, while KOLD has Me-TV) - will end up offering local hi-def in the next few weeks. Tucson gets a morning newscast on KMSB. All of the stations will operate under a joint Website.
But what struck a number of industry watchers when the deal was announced last November is the peculiar notion of Belo outsourcing news. Belo is, by most accounts, a journalism-first outfit that prides itself on leading local content. "With a rich heritage of journalistic achievement," reads the mission statement atop Belo.com, "Belo is the leading news and information source in the many local communities it serves."
While a...