"As an anchor in this new medium, what I do is a combination of traditional reporting and pointing people to where they can find the story told best." - Nicole Lapin, host of CNN.com Live Video
ABC News, which recently sold more "upfront" ad space than any other network news division, is laying off 35 employees yet expanding its online operations.
That's right: traditional broadcast journalists out, digital news diggers in.
Now this "news" isn't really news to anyone who's been following the epic transformation of the business. What is interesting, however, is the shift from news reporters to news "enablers."
It's not like the TV networks and newspapers are hiring armies of online reporters or moving seasoned staff to digital-only desks. Reporters - the ones left - are required to report for both the traditional and new mediums, and the new hires are there to help consumers access that news better or help them create and contribute stories themselves.
Web 2.0, meet Web You.0 - if you want the stories you want, then you better create them yourself.
Newspapers used to deride bloggers; now newspapers like the Houston Chronicle want you to blog for them and "engage in conversation" with staff bloggers. The Washington Post will link to your blog - so in addition to reading a Post story about Iraq, from that same online article you can read what your neighbor thinks, too.
Anderson Cooper wants to chat with you. Networks and newspapers want your on-the-scene videos of breaking events. All of this great You.0 content means more staff needed to handle the flood of digital data - and less staff reporters to cover those same events.
I'm all for citizen media and have been for a long time. And while some focus on lapses in credible or skilled reporting, we cannot overlook the fact that so many people are taking the time to get involved in the news. The audience is not only growing but participating, and younger people are getting involved too, mostly via their social networks.
Yet as with most good things, they are experienced best in moderation. Reporters, even the best of the best, need editors to guide them. Amateur reporters will need the same kind of guidance if news organizations hope to maintain and build their credibility in a Web You.0 world.
We saw with the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy that traditional media organizations are becoming more comfortable letting citizens take the lead, at least in those early "triage" moments of major events when just getting information is the key objective and the deeper reporting and analysis can wait for the media cavalry. But citizens are performing the latter services as well, sometimes with great alacrity and competence.
How traditional media handle this next phase of citizen media is critical - not just for the survival of "Web You.0" news, but for the survival of traditional media companies themselves.
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