The future of news – the self sufficient multimedia reporter

December 15, 2008 by Doug Mitchell

We’re seeing television stations move to a model where the individual reporter shows up on scene, shoots footage, edits, produces, and delivers his or her content to the audience. We call this being multi-talented but if you read this article from the Washington Post on the topic, you’ll get a feel for how expensive the traditional field news report model has been in the past.

Here’s a quote from the TV station WUSA who’s executing this cost cutting business model.

“We believe strongly that [this change] will raise both the quality and quantity of the product we’re putting out” on TV and on the Internet, said Allan Horlick, the president and general manager of WUSA, in an interview yesterday. “The concept of a multimedia journalist, having his own beat, with an area of expertise, and a limitless virtual news desk is something we can get very excited about.”

Notice the positive tone and happiness. Now for a different take:

Veteran TV journalists say their concern isn’t the quantity of news that can be produced but the quality, because not all TV journalists are skilled enough to do a job formerly handled by specialists.

“There are some people who will be very good at this, and some not as much,” said Bill Lord, WJLA’s news director. “If you’re forcing everyone to do things against their skill levels and desire, your product suffers.”

Another veteran reporter says:

“It takes a lot of time to shoot and edit and write and prepare a story, and if you have one person doing all that, something has to give,” he said yesterday. “For those people who want to take the challenge of adding all that to their workload, my hat’s off to them. But it’s not something at my ripe old age that I care to venture into.”

I pose the question, when will stations pare back further and include freelance multimedia journalists who produce excellent content and get paid on a per story basis? Maybe someone can cut the reporting staff by 50% and produce more/better/relevant/engaging/and well produced content for half the investment?

Perhaps this is the ultimate destination of the hyperlocal news stream concept?