This report is based on a study undertaken by the Center for Research Libraries in 2010 and 2011, to map the “lifecycle” of news content published in print and on the Web; and to clarify the relationship between the content in those two very different distribution channels at a particular moment in time. The study was commissioned by the Library of Congress Office of Strategic Initiatives.
The report includes an overview of news workflow and systems, organized around the three major stages in the lifecycle of news information:
- Sourcing News Content
- Editing and Producing the News
- Distributing News Content
Four newspapers provided a test bed for the project: The Arizona Republic, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (since 2008, seattlepi.com), The Wisconsin State Journal, and The Chicago Tribune. The study also drew upon CRL's research on The New York Times, Investor's Business Daily and The Associated Press.
Preserving newspapers from the U.S. and major world regions has been central to CRL’s mission since its founding in 1949. To date, CRL has amassed more than 16,000 newspaper titles from countries in all world regions. The report provided the basis for CRL’s strategic framework for electronic news preservation.
Contributors to this report were:
- Jessica Alverson
- Kalev Leetaru
- Victoria McCargar
- Kayla Ondracek
- James Simon
- Bernard Reilly