Years ago, I worked for the "legendary" City News Bureau of Chicago (legendary is in quotes because that's how it was referred to in Chicago media circles). It was a fabulous idea spawned in the days of very competitive business in Chicago with lots of newspapers competing. What City News did was cover the minutiae of police, courts and basic city coverage, then send its stories out on a wire to all the newspapers (by the time I joined, it had added TV, radio, even AP, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reuters). It covered the city, and, often, its reports were carried as is by the newspapers. Other times, they supplemented newspaper coverage.
In this era of convergence, I've been wondering when someone would move to replicate what City News has done for all the local web sites popping up. Nobody has yet, but they will, I predict.
Anyway, convergence is moving rapidly along even without local coverage as CNN is moving to compete with AP on wire stories, basically seeking to be the City New of America and the world. I think it's a good idea.
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