End of an Error

So I opened up a newspaper today. I don't make a regular practice of this, like 98% of regular people, because I get my news online, or on TV. The actual reason I opened up the paper today was because I was bored at work and looking for a Sudoku, so I grabbed the Washington Post Style Section. For those not acclimated to the Post's Style section, its the name of their Arts section and is "Section C." Anyway, the cover of the Style Section today has a glowing article on Amy Adams, one of the stars of Doubt. Under Amy Adams (= an enviable place) and under the fold (= death in newspapers) I happened to stumble across this little gem.

"WUSA Moves to One- Person News Crews."

For those who don't want to read the whole article, let me USA Today it for you: Basically the Washington DC local CBS affiliate doesn't have enough money to keep sending out reporters with camera crews when covering stories and are cutting back. They are cutting the cameramen and starting to hire people who can be news one-man-bands, thus lowering the quality of the reporting and production in order to save salaries. As if local television news could get worse at reporting and production.

The thing about this story is that its a micro version of a macro problem, that started with newspapers and has clearly spread like a cancer to its next host, local TV. Washington DC is the seventh largest media market in the country so I can only imagine what kinds of changes and cutbacks are in store for everywhere else that isn't NYC, LA, Chicago, San Fran, Philly, and Dallas. This has to be the beginning of a bigger problem, and with media folk holding the magnifying glass, it will be a problem that won't be under-reported.

Today's media unwritten rule seems to be "Go big or go home." This is the case as media conglomerates such as ESPN, CNN, Bloomberg, and the networks have undergone many fewer cutbacks and curtailments than smaller operations. If you aren't with the "bigs" than literally the idea of going home has two meanings. Either get laid off as jobs are cut everywhere from the technical or editorial side of things, or go home and blog, or become one of the many mo-jos (mobile journalists) that are much more attractive hires. That means learning new skills like how to operate the camera, write a news story, shoot the news story, and edit the news story by yourself, sacrificing some integrity with each step along the way (the article admits that a few places that tried mo-jos have backtracked due to the shoddiness of the final product).

I know both people who are employed in this way and who were employed in this way and I can say first hand that the drop-off between this product and a regular story is severe (think '07 Patriots to the Brady-less '08 Pats). So I say to local television media, "Hi, welcome to the life boat. You may want to sit a little closer to newspapers because we're expecting full occupancy."

Oh yeah and if you don't think newspapers are doomed, try this on for size. The Dallas Morning News and Fort Worth Star Telegram, two rival newspapers in media market #6, either will soon or have started sharing beat writers. Detroit's two biggest newspapers (media market #10) are getting a tummy-tuck and a non-daily home delivery schedule. There's too many more examples to cite, but I think we all get it by now.