An Orlando content share among local news outlets has lost a member. Less than a month after the pool kicked off, Central Florida News 13 has opted out of a content agreement with WKMG and WOFL, the Orlando Sentinel reports, citing timing issues.
While local content pools are all the rage these days, Orlando was unique because it had a cable news outlet pairing with a couple broadcast stations.
But not any longer. News 13 GM Robin Smythe told the Sentinel the agreement was an experiment and the Bright House outlet leaves amicably.
“I don’t think it’s as beneficial to our organization as we hoped,” Smythe said today. “We’re stepping away from it on a daily basis. The experiment is going extremely well. Everyone is playing well with each other. We have a different deadline structure from the traditional newscasts. Our story coverage needs are different, the timing is different.”
Smythe said the cable news channel will remain friendly competitors with the other stations in the experiment, WKMG-Channel 6 and WOFL-Channel 35. They started their pooling July 14.
WKMG is owned by Post-Newsweek and WOFL by Fox.
