July 2007 — NAA sends letter to National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell protesting new NFL online/sideline policies

On July 12, NAA sent a letter to National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell explaining newspaper concerns with new NFL 2007 Policies on News Use of NFL Audio/Video Content Online and Sideline Media Access.

The NFL set off a firestorm of protest when it announced the policies on June 1. NAA members and other media groups feared restrictions on coverage of the 2007-08 NFL season -- such as limiting online interviews, press conferences and practice video footage to 45 seconds per day, per team, and limiting publicly accessible audio/video to a 24-hour period online -- would go beyond NFL interests in protecting exclusive game footage, to threaten the public's right to receive news and information on sporting events, games and players.

The NAA letter was signed by NAA Board officers Susan Clark-Johnson, Gannett Company, Inc.; Gary B. Pruitt, The McClatchy Company; George B. Irish, Hearst Newspapers; Mark Contreras, E.W. Scripps Company; Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr., The Washington Post Company, and NAA President John F. Sturm.

NAA participated in a meeting at the Associated Press in New York on June 13 to discuss the policies. The next day a small group of newspaper editors met with NFL officials, with legal counsel present. At the June 14 meeting, editors highlighted both the historic role played by newspapers in helping develop the fan base and today's changing media landscape that demands audio and video coverage online, on newspaper websites, which are one of the fastest growing, most significant sources of local and community news nationwide.

On July 23, the NFL's senior business affairs attorney Frank Hawkins told NAA the league is preparing a formal response to the concerns raised in NAA's July 12 letter and at the June 14 editors meeting in New York . To date, the NFL has clarified that:

• the archiving rule means website audio or video must be taken down after 24 hours and cannot be maintained in a publicly accessible archive, but a newspaper that owns tape may archive in its own storage for use at a later date. Audio and video taken outside NFL property is not subject to the policy.
• interview questions do not apply against the 45 seconds of audio/video posted online. Only the time the player, coach or owner is speaking applies to the 45 seconds.
• league will use a rule of reason for clips running a few seconds over.
• NFL is considering further policy adjustments.

Further controversy arose around July 19, after the Wall Street Journal and National Press Photographer's Association (NPPA) News Photographer magazine ran stories that the vests NFL plans to distribute for sideline photographers will bear advertisements for Canon and Reebok. Although the ads are relatively small, a number of news organizations have expressed concern that any advertisements could jeopardize the appearance of news photographers' editorial objectivity, damaging the credibility of news coverage of NFL games.

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First Published:
July 01, 2007