...our partners in news at 21Alive...

The Maven wonders if 21Alive might be rethinking their reciprocal promotion agreement with the kids in the WOWO news room. By providing 'traffic reports' to 21Alive, the kids in the WOWO news room are allowed to cut and paste "news" from the 21Alive web site for use on WOWO. Think of it as permission to copy your neighbor's homework. The idea is one of "cross promotion". How that benefits the listeners/viewers may be a point of debate. 

For instance, Radio Shack will close 2 Fort Wayne stores. The 21Alive story includes the locations of the stores. The kids in the WOWO news room leave those details out of their story. Why? Since Radio Shack does not sell lip gloss, the Maven guesses that it's not an important fact of the story in their eyes. 

WPTA reports:

The WOWO effort:

Sharp readers will note that the last words of the WOWO copy "if any other locations will do the same". Hard to tell since the kids left out the locations that were closing. 

The Maven's advice: 21Alive needs to be a little more watchful on how the kids in the WOWO news room handle and present 21Alive's work product.....leaving out important details can be expected from WOWO, but when WOWO indicates that the story came from 21Alive, there should be a concern that 21Alive's news product is slipshod and incomplete.