News Corp's new global content-sharing service: NewsCore

Posted by Emma Heald on September 7, 2009 at 9:51 AM

The Guardian reported that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is launching a global service that will make all its news content instantly available to its entire network of news outlets, realising plans that were first announced in April. The service will be called NewsCore and will operate like a global wire service for all the company's newspapers, websites and TV networks.

MediaGuardian obtained an internal briefing on the new service which described the venture as a "21st-century multi-media information service" and explained that "When Sky News reports that Gordon Brown has called an election, everyone in the NWS family can run with it. When TG24 learns that Vesuvius has blown its top again, everyone in NewsCorp will have it. Immediately. And from a source we can trust - us."

NewsCore will operate by scanning the company's electronic story queues, satellite feeds and websites and making the content it finds accessible to News Corp newsrooms around the world. Text, audio, video and even citizen journalism will be distributed.

Back in April it was announced that John Moody, formerly an executive vice president at Fox News, would be overseeing the new content-sharing unit. The Guardian reported that Mike Gutch, a former vice president finance at News America, Adam Birnbaum, technology and data executive, and Scott Norvell, formerly the Europe bureau chief for Fox News, will also be involved in the venture. NewsCore will be based in New York, and the company is hiring journalists there and in London and Asia.

Murdoch's media empire consists of more than 20 newspapers, 18 online-only properties and more than 30 TV and cable networks. Improving cooperation and sharing editorial content makes sense, particularly in tough financial conditions. News Corp publications started to work more closely last year, including linking more widely to each other's content. Content-sharing, both between papers owned by the same publisher and by former rivals, is a trend that has been picking up steam in the last few months.

Source: Guardian