Streaming Media - October/November 2007 - (Page 76) Big questions for big newspapers and small ones. NEWSPAPERS IN Multimedia Metamorphosis (PART 2 OF 2) By Mark Fritz The newspaper as we once knew it is no more. A whole new world of journalism beckons. We are in the midst of a revolution, as newspapers metamorphose from paper-based broadsheets to streams of bits and bytes, as newspaper publishers evolve into multimedia newsgathering entities, and as old-fashioned newsrooms become “converged newsrooms.” We are living in exciting times, but the excitement has brought with it fear of change and lots of nagging doubts and questions. As newspapers consider how they’ll capitalize on streaming media to survive and prosper in this new multimedia world, they are batting around some big issues— some technological, but most having to do with personnel and management. Newspaper people are asking themselves many questions, including these: 1. Should we even be doing video? Isn’t video something that should be left to specialists? 2. Who will do all the extra multimedia work? Staff reporters, staff photographers, new hires? 3. Can we make money from video? How? 4. Are we competing for viewers with the local TV station? Should we? Can we? 5. Will we just do TV on the cheap, or can we do something new? Various newspapers, both big and small, are working through these issues in various ways. 76 STREAMING MEDIA October/November 2007
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