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Political writer Mary Beth Schneider reported from The Star's newsroom on Nov. 7, 2000, about the tightness of the presidential election between George Bush and Al Gore. -- Mpozi Mshale Tolbert / The Star   Special section • Star Century: 100 years of The Indianapolis Star

Since the mid-1990s, The Indianapolis Star and WTHR (Channel 13) have been part of a trend sweeping the U.S. news media.

The two news organizations have partnered to share news content and promote each other.

"It just makes sense to partner the state's largest newspaper and the largest television station. We have double the resources, both in sourcing and budgets, to share costs," said Scott Thien, liaison between the two organizations since October.

WTHR's news director, Jacques Natz, echoed those sentiments. "What's been the most valuable," he said, "has been the day-to-day collaboration that occurs in the field and at the editor level to provide insight on stories."

Such partnerships are dubbed "convergence" within the news industry and are increasingly common. The American Press Institute has identified 51 convergence partnerships in an ongoing attempt to quantify the trend.

The Star-WTHR partnership began informally in 1996 with the two sharing polling costs during the gubernatorial race and hosting a series of community forums with the candidates, Frank O'Bannon and Stephen Goldsmith.

The relationship proceeded gradually thereafter. WTHR started a feature called "Tomorrow's Headlines Tonight" on its 11 p.m. newscast, where it previews stories from the next morning's paper. A camera was placed in The Star's newsroom so reporters and columnists could give on-air commentary. WTHR began providing weather forecasts for The Star.

"It started with people looking at how to do projects with the most efficiency possible," said Jon Schwantes, who preceded Thien as the partnership's liaison. "Then we thought, 'How do we take it to the next level?' "

The next level came in 2000 when Schwantes became the liaison. Under Schwantes, Star columnists began making regular TV appearances, and WTHR's on-air personalities wrote more stories for publication in The Star.

Schwantes, who now holds a similar position in Columbus, Ohio, said his biggest challenge was to bridge the vast cultural divide between newspaper and television news. Even now, Thien said, more cultural detente is needed if the relationship will truly become one of news-gathering as opposed to mere promotion.

"Where it works best is where we undertake a project or a report from the beginning," Thien said. "But we're still competitors, and we're going to have those rough spots from time to time."

Call Star reporter J.K. Wall at 1-317-444-6287.

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