LITTLE ROCK — The Southeastern Conference bent to a storm of complaints from news outlets and organizations Thursday by softening rules affecting how media and fans write about, film and photograph SEC athletic events.
Many editors, as they decide how to proceed, said they had hoped the collegiate athletic organization would ease the rules even further.
The latest changes allow media outlets to: Keep photos online perpetually; blog during games as long as posts don't amount to live play-by-play coverage; post audio and video of sideline interviews and other game-related events; and sell staff-generated photographs without the SEC's permission.
The rules still restrict the use of some video, audio recordings and photos taken at conference sporting events and still limit "real-time" sideline blogs.
"The SEC has always had a positive relationship with the media," SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said in a statement released Thursday. "While there were a few changes we could not meet, there was agreement on many of the issues."
Media organizations that had mobilized to fight the previous rules were pleased the SEC agreed to make revisions but were not completely satisfied with the final version.
"It's certainly not where we would want it to be but it's better than where we were," said John Cherwa, chairman of the Associated Press Sports Editors' legal affairs committee. "It's going to be up to each news organization to see if they can live with it."
Dave Tomlin, The Associated Press' associate general counsel, said he's generally content with progress made on the policy.
"I think you have to give the conference credit for hanging in there, listening at length ... and in the end, coming up with some changes that are responsive," he said.
Tomlin said he expects the majority of media outlets that cover the SEC to eventually agree to the new terms. He said SEC officials have said they're willing to form a media committee that will have ongoing discussions about credentials to avoid last-minute objections such as those seen in recent weeks.
Many media outlets are still deciding what to make of the new rules, which the SEC released midday Thursday.
"We are studying the new policy and are considering what our options are," said Philip Anderson, attorney for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "We are pleased they have removed some of the things we objected to."
Anderson said, however, that the document detailing the rules is "confusing and it seems to be self-contradictory in some areas."
For instance, officials have removed a previous restriction that prevented the sale of souvenir newspapers, but other restrictions remain that prohibit the publication of newspaper photos without the permission of the SEC and all of the schools whose teams appear in the paper.
"It is a restriction on the use of the paper's copyrighted photographs," Anderson said. "That's troublesome."
David Bailey, managing editor of the Democrat-Gazette, said the newspaper hasn't yet decided how to respond.
"We don't recognize anybody's claim to ownership or control of our intellectual property, our copyright material or to the content of our news reports," he said.
The debate over credentials began weeks ago, but reached a crescendo about a week ago when the conference released new credentialing rules.
The leaders of three media organizations sent a letter last week to Southeastern Conference protesting the league's credential policy.
The letter from the Associated Press Managing Editors, the Associated Press Sports Editors and the American Society of News Editors said the SEC's policy was too restrictive for reporters and photographers.
Before Thursday's changes, the SEC proposed that news organizations wanting credentials had to agree not to use, without the SEC's consent, any "account, description, picture, photograph, video" gained during coverage of SEC events for anything other than regular news coverage.
The previous credential agreement also included a requirement that SEC schools could use newspaper photos of SEC events at no additional charge after initially paying at the paper's most favorable rate.
In addition to Thursday's changes, fan reaction prompted the SEC earlier this month to reverse a rule that would have barred ticketed fans from posting game updates on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
While Cherwa of the Associated Press Sports Editors agreed that the latest credential requirements are "murky" and contain contradictions, he said he chooses to subscribe to interpretations of the credentialing rules that favor the media.
"It's not unusual for legal documents to be filled with ambiguities and vagueness," he said. "If everything was crystal clear in the document, it would be the size of the national budget."
Cherwa said additional changes to the rules are possible before the SEC football season begins on Sept. 3.
He said Slive and other SEC officials went to great lengths in the past week to listen to concerned editors.
"I've talked to him this week more than I've talked to my wife," said Cherwa, who is a sports editor at the Orlando Sentinel but will soon take a position at the Los Angeles Times.
"We absolutely did not get everything we wanted," he said. "But in the end, the SEC was sensitive to us on several issues, allowing us photo galleries, use in books, the ability to have control over our own photo images, helping to define what video we can use," he said.
Cherwa said the new policy still strongly restricts game coverage for television news stations.
"Their ability to do highlights is severely restricted," he said. Television stations will only be allowed to show game highlights on the Internet as part of a simulcast with their regular newscast.
But, media outlets will be able to broadcast game highlights produced by the SEC on Web sites using the conference's digital network, now under construction.
The SEC has crafted new 15-year deals with ESPN and CBS worth $3 billion, according to the AP. Also, XOS Technologies, a firm that sells media technology to professional and collegiate teams, will soon launch the SEC Digital Network - a new revenue source for the conference that will archive games, highlights and interviews.
SEC spokesman Charles Bloom said XOS will enforce the new rules related to video footage but many news organizations will be policing themselves as it relates to still photographs.
Bloom said serious discussions on the latest version began Monday.
"We had some very good conversations and all the important issues were addressed," Bloom said. "We felt that most of the major concerns were addressed early on."
Bloom said that most of the media representatives he's talked to on the new policy have indicated they will sign the credential agreement.
Tomlin pointed out that the conference's policy is unusual in that it includes no restrictions on video footage of live game-time sideline interviews with players and coaches.
"That's a great thing for fans," he said. "It's a great thing for news media. It's going to allow journalists to really enrich their online coverage in ways that will please fans."
Front Section, Pages 1, 8 on 08/28/2009