MORE PRINT/TV PARTNERSHIPS

BY JOHN WICKLEIN

Television stations, long criticized for a lot of glitz and little substance in their news broadcasts, are now getting a chance to upgrade the quality of their news at little extra cost. More and more newspapers are stepping up their involvement with TV stations to get broader exposure for their stories. For the stations, this means more enterprise reporting, drawing on staff and resources beyond the dreams of most television news directors.

The Tribune Company's well-known drive for synergy has put Chicago Tribune reporters regularly on WGN, also owned by the company. The partnership has worked well enough in Chicago for Tribune to push all of its newspapers, including those acquired with the purchase of Times Mirror, to set up deals with local TV stations. Cameras are in each of the papers' newsrooms, or will be shortly. New efforts are under way at the Los Angeles Times with KTLA and at Newsday with WPIX in New York -- all owned by Tribune. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel is putting news on WFOR in Miami Beach, The Hartford Courant is working with WTIC and the Baltimore Sun is looking for a partner in its market.

Outside the Tribune Company, the paper furthest along is The Tampa Tribune (owned by Media General), working with WFLA. (See "The Multimedia Newsroom," May/June 2000). "The paper is quicker and more urgent because of our association with television," says Gil Thelen, the paper's executive editor. "And WFLA is more authoritative because of its access to Tribune facilities." Print reporters trained by broadcast instructors from the University of South Florida appear on air, and TV reporters write for the paper.

Getting wider distribution for its stories was a strong motivation for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in setting up a working relationship with WTMJ, owned by the same company. Viewers use stories the paper provides to TV "as a tip source, and then want to read more about them in the paper," says Martin Kaiser, the editor. And by using the expertise of the newspaper, says Jeff Kiernan, the station's news director, "our viewers get better product."

Other partnerships have recently been formed between papers and stations that don't have the same parent:

* Reporters from The Washington Post provide on-camera business reports several times a day on NBC-owned WRC.

* Orange County Register reporters write stories for KCBS in Los Angeles, which, in turn, refers to the print stories in the Register.

* The Akron Beacon Journal arranged for WEWS in Cleveland to broadcast live from its newsroom, often interviewing print reporters on their stories.

Print and television reporters get used to each other's needs in time, says Deb Halpern, assistant news director in Tampa. "But," she says, "we have not quite overcome some print reporters' feeling that TV reporters don't get into stories deeply enough."

And that, for media critic Ned Schnurman, president of The Press and the Public Project, is the rub. "I see some hope, if stations go to newspapers for content," Schnurman says. "But unless the managements are willing to give sufficient time on air for serious journalism, there won't be much depth, no matter how much input there is from a newspaper's reporting."