One Comment to 'Blogging in newsrooms'
Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Blogging in newsrooms'.
:: Trackbacks/Pingbacks ::
No Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Blogging in newsrooms
Posted By katie allison granju
I’m a blogger, a producer, a writer, and I’m employed by a television news station, so I find the ongoing conversation in the comments section below A.C. Kleinheider’s farewell post at Volunteer Voters very interesting. (I do, however, suggest that you ignore all the nasty, pointless comments by some guy calling himself ZackAttack that add nothing to the dialogue).
If you have been following Tennessee media news in the last week or two, you know that WKRN-TV in Nashville - nationally known for a cutting-edge newsroom blogging strategy - decided to let their full-time political blogger, A.C. Kleinheider go. The decision was apparently made for budget reasons.
In the comments below Kleinheider’s post, individuals identifying themselves as TV news prodcers are discussing whether there is money in any TV station’s budget for paying someone to blog, at a time when so many TV newscast personnel are being laid off. But the thing is, one of the primary reasons TV news and print newspaper revenue is drying up is because…..people are getting their news online. The fact that many traditional news outlets haven’t yet figured out how to make money off creating and publishing online news and opinion doesn’t change the fact that the Web is where it’s at. The key is figuring out how to make money off the content; bailing on creating the content (as in, sacking your popular political blogger, A.C. Kleinheider) is not the answer.
I don’t know how the workflow goes in the WKRN newsroom, but my observation is that everyone working in a newsroom these days - both TV and print - has to become a multi-tasker. People who see themselves as only TV producers or beat reporters have to consider branching out and doing more online. And maybe there isn’t enough money in most TV news budgets to pay a full-time blogger, but there certainly is a way to re-allocate money so that a TV producer who happens to be the newsroom expert on local politics can begin spending part of his workweek blogging about local politics. Photographers can spend part of each workweek creating a photoblog. No one can afford to do only one newsroom job any longer. That just isn’t the direction things are heading.
That said, I don’t believe everyone in a newsroom is equally good at everything. Some people are intensely talented TV news producers or reporters or photographers, and their primary job focus (focii?) should remain on those jobs. But these folks CAN learn to do some online stuff, and make it part of their regular jobs.
Additionally - and this is important - just because anyone can get a free WordPress or Blogger account these days doesn’t mean everyone is equally skilled creating and maintaining a blog. Blogging in a way that actually builds, grows and maintains an audience requires a certain skillset, and that skillset should be just as valued and nurtured by newsroom management as the skills required to, for example, host a successful talk show, or write a popular newspaper column.
But newsroom management has to “get” new media in order for this to happen. I’m lucky to work for a company that has a strong commitment to trying new things and giving employees the opportunity to branch out and diversify their jobs. And luckily for Knoxville, we also have the Knoxville News Sentinel in town - a national leader in new media innovation and success , including having newsroom staff create and maintain blogs, as well as embracing and drawing on local bloggers to support news coverage..
Mar 19th, 2008
Nicely said, Katie.