Endangered but not too late

Right now, a clock is ticking on the longevity of your news content. For born-digital content, it’s a clock that could strike midnight at any moment when a disk drive or database fails, a power supply dies or a server is corrupted or compromised, wiping out content in the blink of an eye.

Have you:

•  Lost any content or critical metadata through the constant churn of shifting digital technologies?

Are you:

• Concerned about the longevity of your news organization’s content?
• Wondering whether you can locate and access evergreen content for that proposed new digital product you’re considering on food or travel or sports?

Can you:

• Pull up the original, full-resolution videos and photographs your newsrooms produced for that major breaking news story last year?
• Prove definitively that you own the copyright to the story that went with it?

This report addresses these questions and provides research into what’s happening in today’s news media when it comes to preserving irreplaceable digital news content. It shares best ideas and practices news organizations can adopt.

The report was developed by a research group from the University of Missouri Libraries and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute and supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It launched an 18-month-long project to assess the status of preservation of born-digital news content across the news industry.