Why Use Plucky Wire

Local newspapers face a common challenge: they have limited staff but need to cover a wide range of topics. A small newsroom might have excellent coverage of city council meetings but lack the resources to report on state legislation, regional sports, or investigative projects that span multiple communities.

Historically, news organizations addressed this by subscribing to wire services like the Associated Press. These services provide a steady stream of stories from around the world. However, traditional wire services are expensive, and the stories they provide often lack local relevance.

Plucky Wire takes a different approach. Instead of a centralized service producing content, it enables groups of news organizations to share stories directly with each other.

How It Works

Plucky Wire connects newsrooms that want to share content. In the most common set-up, when your outlet joins a group, you gain access to stories from other member outlets, and they gain access to yours. The group sets the terms for how content can be used through a set of shared content licenses.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

1. A reporter at one newsroom writes a story, and publishes it on their home site
2. The reporter or their editor posts the story to Plucky Wire
3. Newsrooms across the region find it and republish it natively in their own CMS

This model works because local newsrooms often cover stories that would be valuable to neighboring newsrooms. A statehouse reporter's coverage of new legislation matters to newspapers across the state. Sports coverage of a popular team draws readers far beyond the home market. Cultural coverage of the stellar local music scene might draw in tourists from neighboring states.

The model also saves newsrooms time and money. No more wasting reporting resources on low-value rewrites or asking reporters to parachute into another newsrooms' territory just to make sure your newsroom has something on an important story. Plucky Wire helps your reporters focus on the stories that matter most in your community.

No More Rewrites

When small newsrooms break a major story, larger newsrooms often rewrite it without credit rather than linking to the original reporting. This stinks for the small newsrooms and is often a waste of time for the bigger one.

Plucky Wire lets small newsrooms offer stories directly to larger newsrooms in a format that's easy for them to republish with proper attribution. Instead of watching your scoop get rewritten, you can see your byline appear in publications across the region.

Who Benefits

Small and medium newsrooms gain access to a wider range of content than they could produce themselves, expanding their coverage without exhausting their budget.

Reporters and editors see their work reach wider audiences, increasing the impact of their journalism.

News collaboratives and press associations get a purpose-built tool for managing content sharing among their members.

Readers benefit from richer local coverage that draws on the expertise of multiple newsrooms.

Keep Reading

To understand how Plucky Wire organizes content sharing, read about Users, Outlets, and Groups.