Matthew Healey photo courtesy of Christine Hochkeppel

Christine Hochkeppel taking photos of a volcano in Costa Rica while on vacation earlier this year.

Web’s demands set stage
for journalism juggling acts

By Laura Moran and Bret Silverberg
Bulletin Staff

The image of the desk-bound scribe, head buried in a typewriter, is a faded memory. The days of the hard-and-fast print deadline have melded with the age of deadline ambiguity, as news managers are being forced to do more with less in print and yet do much more on the Internet.

The journalists of 2009 are being asked to perform a multitude of tasks for the publications that issue their paychecks.

Supervising editors are asking members of their staffs not only to dig up and report stories, but to take photographs and shoot video. While the title under their bylines typically says staff writer, most newsroom employees have become far more than that.

“I believe every reporter should be capable of taking a good photograph,” said Gary Jeanfaivre, managing editor of the Fairfield Citizen-News and the Westport News, both in Connecticut. “There will undoubtedly be instances when a reporter will be covering an assignment, spot news perhaps, and a photographer will not be there.”

Journalists aren’t being forced to take on multiple roles just because layoffs and buyouts are skinning newsrooms bare. The Fairfield Citizen-News and Westport News, like most newspapers, are actively seeking to improve their online presences, Jeanfaivre said. With an emphasis on Web publishing, the timing of deadlines has changed. When news can be updated at any time on the Web, it helps to have text and photographs come from the same employee to speed up the process. At publications where that happens, full-time reporters are armed with cameras.

Jeanfaivre said reporters have an advantage in that they know what they will be writing about ahead of time and can tailor their photography or video to what their text will say.

“I get the sense that they are excited to make use of the multimedia to supplement their news stories and feature articles,” he said.

Fairfield Citizen-News and Westport News reporters have begun to use Flip Cams, handheld devices designed to take still photos as well as up to an hour of video. Although video is a new concept for some publications whose driving force had been print, video is beginning to emerge as an important third element to accompany the already standard text and still photography, Jeanfaivre said.

With all of the new technology, what happens with the story the reporter is sent out to cover?

“An argument can be made that the shooting of video can detract from their reporting on assignment, but the video can serve as an excellent tape recorder,” Jeanfaivre said.

A reporter’s experience

Joel Banner Baird says he is a writer above all.

As a full-time reporter who “goes nowhere without a digital camera” for The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, Baird has covered both spot news and feature stories and taken photos to accompany both. His background as a magazine writer and photographer has given him some of the tools he needs to be adept when it comes to being the multimedia journalist of today, but he said trouble might emerge depending on what kind of story he is asked to cover.

“If I’m going to be covering a one-time-only speech or if I’ve got to dog someone for a very quick on-the-run interview, there’s nothing better than having someone else with a camera so I can concentrate on writing and asking questions,” Baird said. “When things are a little more leisurely, I really enjoy taking photographs.”

The editors at the Burlington Free Press try to cater to their employees’ talents, Baird said. If a reporter is willing and able to take quality photos, they are welcome to. If there is a subject too difficult to shoot in light of a reporter’s technological limitations, a freelance photographer can be called on to do the job better.

Baird said he takes more photographs for his stories than some other reporters at the Free Press do for theirs, primarily because photography is his hobby. He said, though, that the trend of reporters taking photos is increasing, perhaps from necessity.

“I think there is a growing expectation (that reporters also take photos),” he said. “I can see other reporters getting on board.”

Video in demand

Boston.com, the Web site that hosts The Boston Globe’s online counterpart, is making an effort to concentrate primarily on video, according to Thea Breite, multimedia editor for Boston.com.

For the Web site, three employees deal exclusively with video, she said. Other photographers and reporters record video for use with the Web site’s copy of a print story. Some of those employees are equipped with the skills needed to put it up for view on the site.

“If you learn the technology, then you will get to do it,” Breite said.

The Boston.com newsroom has plenty of workers who want to learn the technology, either because they think that it will help their careers or because they are genuinely interested, she said. The reaction she has received from reporters asked to take on multiple roles has been positive.

Still, the kinks have not all been worked out, Breite said. She said that, at times, the newsroom, which is still run by “word people,” can make things difficult when trying to convert a newsroom of keyboard clackers into camera operators and page designers. She said editors are reluctant to allow their reporters to sacrifice writing time for multimedia training.

“Everything is still a bit like the Wild West,” she said. “That’s what makes it frustrating but exciting as well.”

Photography less a singular undertaking

Many newspapers still employ full-time photographers.

Christine Hochkeppel, one of two full-time staff photographers for East Bay Newspapers, based in Bristol, R.I., which owns eight weekly newspapers in Rhode Island, said that even though her editors expect their reporters to take photographs for their stories, she is happy that the higher-ups have not decided to let their full-time photo staff members go.

“Thankfully my company has kept us on and appears to value the quality of their images,” she said.

Hochkeppel, who has worked at East Bay Newspapers for three years, said the lack of journalists at some newspapers whose sole job is photography negatively affects the industry overall.

“Images are very important,” she said, referring in particular to the current thinking in journalism that the Web is the preferred medium for news consumption.

Hochkeppel thinks that because of the Internet, art in a newspaper and on the Web has become more important than ever in keeping readers.

“Web sites are very image-driven,” she said. “I think it’s very necessary that the field of journalism continues to strive for good visuals and good stories.”

Internet reshapes newsroom thinking

With the introduction of the Internet to newsrooms came the introduction of a new type of journalist, according to a 2008 Pew Research Center Project for Excellence in Journalism study titled “The Changing Newsroom.”

According to the study, which involved news executives from 258 major newspapers in the United States, there is a general uncertainty among editors when it comes to the Internet.

Forty-three percent of editors surveyed thought that the Internet not only holds the key to saving journalism financially, but offers a platform on which the highest quality journalism can be produced.

The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel has restructured its entire newsroom to meet the demands of the Web. People’s job descriptions were changed from “reporter” to “news gatherer.” They were now responsible for producing text and visual material for the Internet and for print, according to a section of the Pew Research Center study called “The Influence of the Web.”

“We were very newspaper-production-driven,” Charlotte Hall, the Orlando Sentinel’s editor and president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, said in the Pew Center study. “I wanted to see ourselves in the new world as driven by news-gathering across platforms. We needed to be a much more multimedia newsroom.”

That perceived need has paved the way for new training methods for journalists, according to the study. The advent of the “Mo-Jo,” or mobile journalist, is the offspring of the new newsroom landscape.

According to the study, mo-jos are journalists who cover a regional beat rather than a traditional theme such as crime or sports and who carry a cell phone, laptop and cameras. The mo-jo must be prepared at all times to be able to upload content to the Internet. The idea is to emphasize speed of delivery for breaking news, according to the study.

With all of the Internet-based news production, what happens to the print counterpart?

According to the Pew study, 81 percent of editors interviewed see their print edition and Web counterpart as one product produced in different formats. A trend noted in the study shows the Web’s influence on journalism is getting stronger while print’s is stagnating.

“The demands of producing more Web content are diminishing the print product,” an anonymous editor said in the study.

Storytelling still paramount

While the Internet is causing journalists to venture into uncharted creative territory, good journalism is still an observable entity. Reporters still report stories, even if they are now asked to do other things. Photographers still take photographs even if mo-jos, multimedia journalists, news gatherers and reporters-turned-videographers are slowly becoming their competition.

Still, every newsroom employee has one central goal in mind.

“If you can tell a story, and you have patience and you are eager, you can do multimedia,” the Boston Globe’s Thea Breite said. “The best multimedia reporters are the best storytellers, and there are some really talented reporters who would be great at this.”

Adam Silverman photo courtesy of The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press

Joel Banner Baird, a reporter for The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, has a hands-on approach to handling mulch at a Burlington, Vt., park for a story he did about composting earthworms.

POSTED 10/22/09

'If you can tell a story, and you have patience and you are eager, you can do multimedia. The best multimedia reporters are the best storytellers, and there are some really talented reporters who would be great at this.'

-- Thea Breite,
Multimedia editor,
Boston.com