It’s all just news and information now

Posted By katie allison granju

Bill Hobbs offers his thoughts on new media trends:

Some time ago I wrote a piece asserting that newspapers, while they seem to be a more obsolete technology than broadcast news outlets, actually have the advantage over television in the transition to the new media world.

Briefly, I’ll recap why.

# 1. Newspapers still have larger news-gathering staffs and more news-gathering capabilities.

# 2. Newspapers can add video and audio reporting to their websites much more cheaply than broadcasters can add niche printed products to their portfolio.

# 3. Increasingly inexpensive digital technologies like web sites, blogs, digital cameras and digital video cameras, plus web tools such as YouTube and RSS, make it very easy for newspapers to turn their websites into constantly-updated multi-media news portals, served by reporters spread across a large region.

It comes down to cost. Newspapers have two huge costs that broadcasters don’t - the cost of newsprint and the cost of fuel for the delivery trucks. Broadcasters’ unique big costs include such things as satellite remote trucks, video cameras, video editing and production equipment, and multi-person crews to produce stories.

Cheap digital technologies have given newspapers a way to dump their two biggest costs - and beef up their products - sooner than broadcasters can reduce theirs.


Hobbs makes some good and fair points, but I’d argue that broadcast outlets have always been able to do more with less, so in some ways, they’re better able to adapt to the concept of the do-it-all multimedia journalist model. But really, the whole newspaper vs. broadcast model is going to become meaningless soon anyway. We’re all evolving into multiplatform, digital news and info outlets. Period.

Apr 10th, 2008

One Comment to 'It’s all just news and information now'

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  1. There will come a backlash in which printed media will be considered better once again.

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