The Duluth News Tribune is keeping local broadcasters from using Associated Press stories that came from them. Danielle Kaeding reports.

Give credit where credit is due. That from Duluth News Tribune Executive Editor Rob Karwath. He says the Tribune will use its outing rights to prevent local broadcasters from using the newspaper’s stories. Karwath says the last straw fell when he saw DNT stories on a competitor’s website. “Every morning, generally, every one of their 3 or 4 stories they had up on their website was an AP re-write of one of our stories. At a time when we’re competing against broadcasters in ways we never did—you know, they with their websites…we with ours—it really has impressed upon many of us in newspapers that broadcasters have been competitors but there even more so competitors now.” The Duluth News Tribune has about 30 people on its news gathering staff. Karwath says they take pride in their beat reporting. “For other businesses to kind of just piggyback on that, it’s just not fair. We spend a lot of money honestly just paying for a large news gathering team. The goal of that is to create some great products both in print and online that people will come back to.” Steve Goodspeed is the news director for Duluth’s ABC affiliate WDIO-TV. He says their station has used Tribune stories, but they credit the newspaper’s work. “I’ve talked to the staff. You know, just because it’s on AP doesn’t mean that a local outfit shouldn’t get credit for the story. You know, if it’s a story out of Rochester, Minnesota, I don’t see any point in crediting the AM radio station down there. But, when competitors in our market are generating stories and we think it’s important enough to report on, we should credit them--just like if they thought something we reported was big enough they should credit us.” Northland’s News Center News Director Barbara Reyelts says their station has never used DNT stories saying they "never have, never will." KDAL-Radio couldn’t be reached for comment. The Duluth News Tribune could seek civil action for infringement of copyright laws if local broadcasters don’t comply. KQDS-TV FOX 21, Minnesota Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Radio aren’t among those who can’t use the paper’s work.

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