Putting Their Names All Over the News

[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Steven Levingston]
Clear Channel Communications radio stations in Madison (WI) and Milwaukee are turning back the clock. Starting in January, the news on WIBA-AM in Madison will deliver its report from the Amcore Bank News Center. The station has sold naming rights to its newsroom to Amcore, a regional institution operating in southern Wisconsin, northern Illinois and Iowa. About two years ago, WISN-AM in Milwaukee introduced listeners to its newscast from the PyraMax Bank News Center. The banks do not sponsor the newscasts exclusively and will not impose strictures on the broadcasts. But under the arrangement, the shows are closely identified with the institutions. The agreements reflect the proliferation of corporate sponsorships in recent years -- think FedEx Field and MCI Center -- and the pressure many newsrooms feel to boost revenue. Close alliances between companies and news enterprises, however, raise a special set of issues related to journalistic integrity, ethicists say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/14/AR2005121402225.html
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