A multimedia/online news growing pain
Posted on July 12, 2007 by Melissa Worden
Mindy McAdams is calling for more breaking news multimedia by showcasing a breaking news audio slideshow produced by photojournalist Dan Limmer about a protest in Kennebunkport, Maine, and providing an analysis of the piece.
At the end of her post, she brings up a most interesting question:
Dan thinks it might be problematic if a package like this one were edited by someone who never went to the scene:
“If a paper employed a producer, it would help overall in time/resource management. But in a news situation, I would want to be sure the multimedia was mixed in context to the photos and in accordance with ethical standards. That may be difficult for someone who wasn’t there.
The concept of editing audio and integrating still photos (the “vision” aspect of the multimedia) can’t be overlooked as challenging and time consuming. Going back to square one after already mixing sound once because it doesn’t flow or tell a story is a drag. Fortunately, this one came together on the first try.”
It’s a very important question: Will a producer who was not on the scene tell the story accurately? Obviously, the photographer could sit down with the producer and ensure that the real story comes through. But in cases where that’s not possible, what will be done to ensure that the finished product is accurate and true?
This is one of our growing pains.
I agree with Mindy and Dan that it’s quite difficult for someone who wasn’t on the scene to put together a multimedia story — it’s like writing a print story from someone else’s notes.
For this type of project, reporters/photographers are doing more than “spraying the scene” with video or recording an interview for an audio clip. They’re creating STORIES while they’re out in the field, and video, photos and audio are gathered with a storyline in mind.
Pass off the content to someone else to put together, and you risk wasting any creative intents by the reporter/photographer and, more importantly, getting the facts wrong.
But, whew, that’s a lot of extra work for reporters/photographers to do. Newspapers are cutting personnel, and leaner newsrooms means there’s more on everyone’s plates.
Not to say that reporters/photographers aren’t eager to learn new online skills. But they’re still expected fulfill their print obligations, and multimedia is one more thing they would have to get done for the story that could take them away from covering something else. Really, when it comes down to it, which is going to win: Multimedia or another news story?
So what’s the solution? With tighter resources, it doesn’t make sense to send two reporters to a scene — one for print and one for online. And it just gets us away from the integrated newsroom philosophy (which I fully support), so it’s not a viable option.
It’s got to be a change in workflow philosophy to reverse publishing.
When the newsroom ALWAYS thinks online FIRST — and decides the best way to tell that story (text, audio, slideshow, video or an interactive graphic/database) –THEN takes that story and modifies/edits it for print, the reporter/photographer always will be the creative behind the multimedia.
It WILL work. Editor & Publisher reports: Gannett’s Democrat and Chronicle, under the new “Information Center” directive, has learned that the online features can drive print circulation.
Editors discovered this in September when they prepared a multimedia package on local sex offenders, which included a database of registered felons and various audio and video reports. The Web package was prominently placed on the homepage Sept. 28 to promote much of the same material in a Sunday print presentation three days later. The effort resulted in the biggest Sunday single-copy sales of the year, with 4.9% more than any other Sunday. That record was broken two months later when the same approach was used for a report on police overtime.
Unfortunately, all is not rosy with this method; reporters/photographers still feel stretched too thin:
Still, the increased workload and broader news scope are stressing some staffers, who also worry about accuracy and the need for down time. “They are stressed out,” says Lou Mleczko, president of the Detroit Newspaper Guild, which represents newsroom staffers at Gannett’s Detroit Free Press. “It reduces the amount of time available to do reporting and other things they have to do. Errors are appearing online, and that is because there is not enough time to look things up. Editors are in such a panic to get things up on the Web.”
Maybe the answer is to switch everything around. Instead of having the same staff try to do both, why not keep the teams with concentrated focuses, but flip the resources. Instead of having our main production efforts going to print production, and a small online team, why not have the main production efforts be for online, and employ a smaller set of editors to package the print product?
Until we figure out the best workflow, I think management will look for ways to make the current systems most efficient, and that probably will mean we’ll see many organizations channel content through an online editor/producer. It will be essential for that person to make sure they tell the story accurately.
(BTW, all this leads me to wonder: Am I working myself out of a job? I’m a journalist, and I love to tell stories. But I don’t go out in the field to do the reporting — the reporters and photographers do that. So when my ideal scenario happens, what happens to the online producer?)
Tags: online journalism, multimedia, storytelling
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9 Responses to “A multimedia/online news growing pain”
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Lots of interesting stuff to chew on here, but one thing caught me eye: “it’s quite difficult for someone who wasn’t on the scene to put together a multimedia story — it’s like writing a print story from someone else’s notes.”
That is what used to be done by rewrite staff on the desk: taking down the notes and observations from the reporter in the field and then crafting that into the story for the paper. The best of the rewrite editors were experts at getting all the pertinent facts and detail out of the reporter.
There really is no reason to suppose (other, perhaps, than ego) that someone with both production and strong journalism skills, closely communicating with the folks at the scene, couldn’t put together breaking news multimedia without having been there.
Mark,
Thanks for your comment. And that’s an excellent point. Working from notes can happen, also, when reporters work together on stories, I believe.
Many times, I work from the office on breaking news for the Web. But my role is pulling all the pieces together. Working with the editors to get the text updated, getting the video from TV, calling the reporter for an audio clip or getting them to submit an interview to me.
But I do think it would be quite difficult if a photographer gave me 30 photos and 5 or 10 minutes of audio (and was not accessible because he/she had to more work to do on the story for print — or whatever took him/her away from the project — as in Mindy’s example) that I had to edit down into a breaking news audio slideshow without having been at the scene myself.
[…] to my post here yesterday, Melissa Worden (a multimedia producer at HeraldTribune.com) provided even more ideas for us to chew […]
I think this will be how things go eventually, but not until it makes financial sense to do so. And that means the online ad folks need to learn how to educate themselves, and advertisers, about online opportunities, technology and products.
But until that time comes, newspapers should be hiring folks with online skills and training those without. If employees resist training, or give the whole “that’s not my job” statement, they should find another source of income.
The days of saying “I work for print,” or “I work for online” should be over. Heck, they should have been over years ago!
Stand it on its head…
Newspapers everywhere are trying to “transform,” “explode,” “re-org,” “downsize,” and generally rearrange the “deck chairs” on you know what. Here’s an idea of Melissa Worden: Instead of having our main production efforts going to print prod…
With our Virginia Tech Shooting coverage, most of our multimedia was produced by people not actually on the scene — our smart multimedia producers (Hunter Wilson and Meg Martin)were able to piece together our multimedia stories by communicating with all of the newsroom staff in a tight deadline and a very high pressure situation.
Myself — I was on scene shooting video some of which was edited by multimedia producer Hunter Wilson (not on scene)
It can be done.
sg
Instead of having our main production efforts going to print production, and a small online team, why not have the main production efforts be for online, and employ a smaller set of editors to package the print product?
Alas, you’re trying to reverse a polarity:
– Legacy content management systems export to the Web, often via a script. Starting over with a Web-based tool that can export to the print content management system is a major undertaking.
– Fitting the news into a page, designing and laying it out requires more time and many more people than native Web tools that strip a whole story in, put the photo on top or on the right, and make the headline a link on an index or homepage.
– Print has a press ready to roll on deadline, with bottom-line consequences for being late.
– News organizations haven’t seen programmers and Web developers as newsroom positions. Consequently they can’t do what they’d like to do because nobody knows how. Systems staffs are spread thin making advertising products and maintaining the site and the email server, etc.
– The longtime newspaper managers who find themselves overseeing the online publication don’t understand what software can and can’t do, and especially the kinds of tech import/export considerations I outlined above.
Hiring a Web-savvy programmer who has someunderstanding of news flow could help, but that might run afoul of ongoing turf wars at the corporate level.
[…] response to Mindy’s post, Melissa Worden discussed the question of who will edit the reporters’ videos: the shooter, or an online producer? … multimedia is one more thing they would have to get done for the story that could take them […]
I think Patrick Beeson has it right. Right now we’re in a transition period. I was discussing this very topic with a hard core investigative reporter friend of mine today and he brought up the New York Times as an example of a place that has a dedicated reporter, photographer, videographer and, often times, editor assigned to all of their big stories. The reporting, still photography and Web package are all top notch, and eventually, he argued, once our industry figures out how to make money on the Web the cost of sending three people out to gather great content won’t be so bad.
I see an alternate future. In five years, when the reporters and photographers who have taken the time and initiative to learn multimedia have gotten a lot better at it, why would a news org pay three salaries when it can get good but not great reporting and a blog from the reporter and good but not great photos and a video from the photographer? The editor and online producer will merge, thus reducing another staff position. I think you’re half right Melissa - news editors and producers are competing for the jobs of the future and she with the best online skill set will win.