*UPDATE 2: This list is now dated - a newer version with much more information is posted over at my other blog: http://stearns.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/indexing-journalism-collaboration/

*UPDATE: The term "competitor collaborations" is a holdover from the presenter mentioned below - this post looks more broadly at news and journalism collaborations of all kinds.

News sharing, editorial collaborations, business partnerships - journalists and newsrooms are increasingly exploring new ways to collaborate. Some of these efforts are resulting in exciting new kinds of news, pushing stories beyond what could have been done by any one person, and producing more local news for communities. Others, however, are leading to further consolidation, newsroom layoffs and a notable decrease in the amount of local reporting in communities.

At the FTC journalism event Katherine I. Funk, a partner at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, gave an overview of “competitor collaborations” (her term, not mine) in the news industry and the anti-trust implications of these partnerships. Her inventory is below.

I have added a few more under her bullets. Help me expand on her list and develop a more complete picture of news partnerships and collaborations. Add yours to the comments section.

Katherine I. Funk: Within just the past two years, all across the country, news organizations are collaborating on news coverage, allowing for better allocation of scarce resources:

• The eighth largest papers in Ohio have formed what's unfortunately called, OHNO, the Ohio news organization to share content, including sports coverage, state government and local events.
• Five newspapers in Maine launched the state-wide alliance similar to that in Ohio.
• The Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post and Sun Sentinel began a traditional alliance to share stories, including longer feature stories.
• The Dallas Morning News and Ft. Worth Star, began sharing conference reviews. They're keeping separate the coverage of Cowboys.
• The Washington Post and Baltimore Sun entered into an agreement to exchange local Maryland reporting.
• On television, Fox and NBC news share video taken at news events, crime scenes and press conferences in Chicago, New York, L.A., Dallas and Washington.
• WAMU, the public radio station at American University, has entered into news gathering exchanges with various local papers in and around Virginia and Maryland to share content.
• Two weeks ago Department of Justice issued a newsletter to share an online news litigation service.
• Pro Publica sources stories published in L.A. Times, New York Times, and everywhere in between.

Funk's list is at best partial. Below are a few more examples – some highlight positive trends, others are more troubling. I’m sure you all know of others. Help me fill in the blanks in the comments section and I'll keep updating this list.

• In Hawaii - the CBS, NBC and MyNetwork affiliates in Honolulu combined to create the “largest television news operation” in Hawaii. The three news stations will now be housed in the same place, sharing reporters and editorial ideas, but they will broadcast from separate channels, appearing as distinct entities to viewers. Nearly 70 employees from the stations will lose their jobs. (http://bit.ly/abLQfL)
• In LA - James Rainey of the LA Times reports "The merging of KCOP and KTTV TV has left the former not even a shell of its old self, unless beefcake and dancing anchors count. The losers: Angelenos who crave real, local news." (http://bit.ly/977I5c)
• In Syracuse and Peoria. TVNewsCheck reports, “In Syracuse, Barrington’s NBC affiliate WSTM took over Granite’s CBS affiliate WTVH. Meanwhile, in Peoria, Granite’s NBC affiliate WEEK took over Barrington’s ABC affiliate WHOI. Technically, all four stations will continue to air news, but, in fact, two stations, WTVH and WHOI, have ceased to exist as independent journalistic enterprises.” (http://bit.ly/brKelG)
• From Publish2: “During the Copenhagen climate summit, a group of journalists from Mother Jones, The Nation, Grist, The UpTake, TreeHugger, and other news organizations have applied the collaborative newswire model to a major international news story, forming the Copenhagen News Collaborative to curate the best coverage from their own reporters, editors, and analysts covering the event.” (http://bit.ly/8xtTiU and here's another good write up on this project http://bit.ly/brBSEk)
  
• Also from Publish2: “News organizations in Washington State are using a Publish2 Newsgroup to collaborate on creating a link newswire of top regional news. The collaboration was grew out of a state-wide news event in January 2009. When western Washington State was overcome by flooding, four newspaper newsrooms at four different media companies collaborated to roundup and share coverage of the flooding — both their own and coverage from other media sources around the state. (http://bit.ly/dAhBuo)

Keep the other examples rolling in!