DALLAS — The Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram — rivals with a long history of fierce competition for sports news — will begin sharing coverage of most of their major professional teams starting Feb. 1.

The Morning News will provide coverage of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and hockey's Dallas Stars to the Star-Telegram. In exchange, the Fort Worth paper will provide coverage of baseball's Texas Rangers.

Both papers will continue separate coverage of their biggest sports beat — the Dallas Cowboys. They will not share sports columnists or investigative stories.

Star-Telegram Executive Editor Jim Witt and Morning News Editor Robert W. Mong Jr. said the arrangement would allow both papers to reduce expenses and eliminate duplicative stories.

"This works only because both papers have sports sections recognized as being among the best in the country," Mong said. "Readers will continue to get top-notch coverage of the teams they follow."

The papers also will share coverage of some college teams and other sporting events.

Last fall, the papers launched a joint distribution agreement. They also started sharing some photographs and arts coverage late last year.