Launching a Local Syndication Program to support Independent News Publishers
Local news is more than crime, car crashes, weather, traffic and sports
Local news reporting is fragmented and incomplete. Traditional local news follows a well worn formula of crime, accidents, traffic and weather, and sports (71% of TV newscasts are devoted to these topics). The news consumers’ challenge is finding localized news from national publications that cover issues not well covered by the traditional local news media because they may be too esoteric, long form, or narrowcast for the general news consumer. The issues include ethnic journalism, social and cultural impact news, the environment, and the arts.
Some of the best local journalism that news consumers miss are published by independent news publishers like Mother Jones, Colorlines and Center for Investigative Reporting. For example, when Colorlines publishes an article related to Tucson AZ, do locals in Tucson, who may be directly impacted by the article content, read it? They probably don’t know Colorlines exists. Nationally focused publications are digested based on topical interest, not local interest. There is currently no way for Tucson readers to know about Colorlines articles in real time unless they already subscribe to Colorlines or the articles are syndicated through local Tucson news media channels.
Local Syndication Program between The Breaking News Network and Independent News Publishers
The Breaking News Network (“BNN”) has set up a Localized Syndication Program with three independent news publishers organizations: The Media Consortium, the Institute for Nonprofit News and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia that leverages the BNN’s localized news feeds to syndicate publisher articles in real time for local consumption. The syndication program is based on parsing publisher articles by location and is automated across ~100 top metro cities. It will be extended across all 400 BNN city news feeds globally. For example, when Colorlines publishes an article related to a city, like Tucson Arizona, the BNN Tucson feed @breakingtusnews tweets the article link and embeds the article into BreakingTucsonNews.com.
Independent news publishers benefit from being discovered by local readers, and extending their exposure and reach by social media amplification. With the program in place, the BNN will be the only local news network in the US and Canada to comprehensively curate and aggregate local news across 100 cities/MSAs from both local and national media sources.
About The Breaking News Network
The Breaking News Network(“BNN”) is the largest and most comprehensive community news media network covering over 400 cities globally. Launched in 2009, The BNN has cultivated a loyal follower base of 1,200,000 who appreciate curation of the best local media and blog feeds in 400 cities, presented in a noncommercial format that generates good will.
About Investigative News Network, The Media Consortium, and Association for Alternative Newsmedia
The Investigative News Network helps nonprofit news organizations produce and distribute stories with impact, achieve cost efficiencies by pooling resources and develop new revenue streams to become sustainable businesses.
The Media Consortium is a international network of over 70 leading independent progressive journalism organizations. They support smart, engaged, high-impact journalism that redefines the political and cultural debate.
The Association of Alternative Newsmedia is a a 501c(6) organization, which represents 115 alternative newsmedia organizations throughout North America. AAN member publications reach more than 38 million active, educated and influential adults in print, on the web and on mobile devices.
UPDATE
October 10, 2015
We have amplified over 20,000 articles by independent news publishers since February, bringing important local news that would normally not be noticed by locals into focus.
February 10, 2015
We are averaging about 100 syndication postings daily across the BNN over the past three weeks. Examples:
