NORTHWEST WISCONSIN – A few weeks ago you may have read the article that the Inter-County Cooperative Publishing Association, publisher of the Leader, is expanding its local news partnerships through a news sharing agreement with the Gray Television stations in Duluth (KBJR-TV) and Eau Claire (WEAU-TV). This agreement means news stories, including video, compiled by Leader staff will be occasionally shared with the two local television stations. Look for a courtesy on the news graphic to know when a Leader story is featured on local television news on these two channels. In exchange, the Leader will be able to share news stories, whether it’s hard news or just a feature story, done by the two television stations in our weekly newspaper with you from time to time.
It is a real “win-win” given the great area of remote distance covered by both the Leader and the television stations. For example, instead of a Leader reporter having to spend all day in Duluth and Eau Claire to cover something going on there that impacts Polk or Burnett county, we can use the resources of the television news reporters. Likewise, when there is breaking news in our area, our reporters will file news reports for the television stations, instead of their crews having to spend hours traveling up or down to our area. Another area the news sharing service works is having our local sports be covered more on regional television. Most of the time, the television stations do not have staff to come to Polk and Burnett counties to cover our local high school sports; however, Leader staff will take short video clips and send them into the television stations on certain sporting events of interest. This will mean more regional exposure of the hard work our student athletes do.
Many people don’t realize that Gray Television actually got its beginnings here in the newspaper world. James H. Gray started his communication business with the purchase of The Herald Publishing Company (a company founded in 1897 to promote The Albany Herald, a newspaper that started publication in 1891), in 1946 after he returned from World War II. Gray launched WALB-TV in 1954. Today, the company owns 180 television stations across the United States.
On Wednesday, Jan. 18, Leader Editor Robert Tabern and Leader reporter Shaila Johnson spent the entire day down in Eau Claire meeting and shadowing some members of the WEAU-TV news team, including news director Joe Radske, longtime news anchor Judy Clark and meteorologist Mike Dandrea. Discussions were also had on how the news partnership can benefit both organizations and make them stronger for their readers and viewers. Radske and Tabern actually worked at the same time in the Milwaukee television market back in the early 2000s.
The partnership agreement made on Jan. 18 became an almost instant benefit for WEAU-TV. As Johnson and Tabern were driving back from the meeting in Eau Claire, they got word of the major fire that was taking place at Red Bird Music in Osceola. Instead of going home, the news duo diverted to the scene and spent several hours covering the fire for the Leader. Video obtained was sent to WEAU-TV in time for their early morning newscast. WEAU-TV, in turn, passed the video along to CNN, which they are also an affiliate of. Meaning, the video filmed by the Inter-County Leader actually ended up briefly on the national news.
We look forward to bringing you more improved coverage in the months and years ahead here at the Leader with this important news gathering partnership resource. Barron and Polk county readers will mainly see our video on WEAU-TV, while our friends in Burnett and Washburn counties will mainly see our video on KBJR-TV. However, there is always some overlap depending on your television provider.
FUN BONUS VIDEO! Below is some bonus video of ICL editor Robert Tabern and ICL reporter Shaila Johnson practicing the weather at WEAU-TV in front of the "green screen". (In all fairness, this was Shaila's first time attempting this, while Robert would fill-in as a weather reporter at his first television station he worked at back from 1998-2001).
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