Documentary Produced by The Dallas Morning News, WFAA-TV Wins National Headliner Award
Dallas, TX — Belo Corp. (NYSE:BLC) said today that War Stories, a television program resulting from the collaborative efforts of WFAA-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth and The Dallas Morning News, has won a national award for best documentary. The program, featuring never-before-seen photographs, video and commentary by Belo journalists covering U.S. military units during the Iraq war, provides viewers with a rare glimpse into the world of embedded journalists.
First aired on WFAA in June, the hour-long War Stories was honored with a National Headliner Award for best documentary. The documentary team included photographers David Leeson and Cheryl Diaz Meyer and reporters Tod Robberson, Ed Timms and Jim Landers from The Dallas Morning News, and senior reporter Byron Harris and photojournalist Doug Burgess from WFAA. Harris and Leeson were co-executive producers of the special.
A compelling multimedia presentation, the documentary depicts a side of the Iraq conflict most Americans did not see in mainstream reports from the war. Its a rare personal perspective of journalists on the front lines, and features commentary like nothing I have ever seen before. Its truly riveting, said David Duitch, WFAA vice president/News.
David Leeson shot both photography and video while on assignment in Iraq, and did a superb job of pulling together the efforts of journalists at The Morning News and WFAA for this documentary, said Bob Mong, president and editor of The Dallas Morning News. Its a testament to Belo journalists ability to work together for the benefit of our audiences.
The program is another illustration of how Belo operating companies collaborate regularly to produce a better news product, according to Jack Sander, Belos president/Media Operations. Belos Texas television stations and The Dallas Morning News previously collaborated to win a 2002 National Headliner Award for the documentary, Project Texas: Hidden Dangers/High Risk.
Our Companys future will depend on how well our media operations work together by sharing content, creating combined sales and marketing opportunities, and embracing enterprise-wide technology platforms and other efficiencies, Sander said. Belo companies share a common value system and approach to quality, and this enables us to share resources and ideas on a daily basis, with exceptional results.
About Belo
Belo Corp. is one of the nations largest media companies with a diversified group of market-leading television, newspaper, cable and interactive media assets. A Fortune 1000 company with approximately 7,900 employees and $1.4 billion in annual revenues, Belo operates news and information franchises in some of Americas most dynamic markets and regions, including Texas, the Northwest, the Southwest, Rhode Island, and the Mid-Atlantic region. Belo owns 19 television stations (six in the top 15 markets) reaching 13.8 percent of U.S. television households; owns or operates 10 cable news channels; and manages one television station through a local marketing agreement. Belos daily newspapers include The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal, The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA) and the Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, TX). Belo Interactives new media businesses include more than 30 Web sites, several interactive alliances, and a broad range of Internet-based products. Additional information, including earnings releases, is available online at www.belo.com. For more information, contact Scott Baradell, vice president/Corporate Communications, at 214-977-2067.