By: Katy Bachman (
Mediaweek) The Sun of Baltimore on Monday severed its two-year exclusive news and cross-promotion alliance with ABC affiliate WMAR-TV, but kept the door open for future agreements with the Scripps Howard TV station as well as with other media outlets in the market.
It was the Tribune Co. paper's first alliance with another media outlet, formed to draw more younger readers to The Sun. But with WMAR's news still trailing in third place behind WJZ, Viacom's owned and operated CBS station, and WBAL, Hearst-Argyle's NBC affiliate, The Sun didn't get the readership bump it wanted, according to a source at the paper.
Several of The Sun's reporters will still appear on WMAR, but now they'll be free to appear on other TV stations as well.
Drew Berry, vice president and general manager of WMAR, wasn't all that surprised by The Sun's move. "To have multiple partnerships is just good business sense," he said. WMAR maintains alliances with a couple of radio stations in the market as well as The Afro American Newspaper. "It was a luxury for us to have exclusivity," Berry added.
The Sun's change in strategy to pursue a series of alliances couldn't come at a better time for Tim Franklin, who joined as editor of The Sun in January after serving as former editor of sister paper, The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, which has a bevy of alliances with radio and TV stations.
The Sun had a Sunday circulation of 465,807 as of Sept. 30, 2003.
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