Redundancies and Telegraph are two words which have become synonymous in recent times.The former editor of Telegraph Online, Richard Burton, left the paper a few months ago ahead of a round of redundancies. He did so because, in his own words, he was about to go from "manager of the first team to first team coach".
Burton however is a good example of a traditional Fleet Street journalist who embraced new media and saw the new world of possibilities for newspapers in Britain.
He realised that instantaneous publication gave a print journalist broadcast capabilities.
This made me think about how much the rise of new media will merge the broadcast and print industries. Online offers the ability to deliver text, the traditional stuff of newspapers, instantly without the delay caused by delivery lorries, overnight trains or even planes to the 4 corners of the UK. It also offers the ability to deliver video and sound at increasingly better quality. So it is a medium in which all journalists can work and it is a medium in which the reader also expects to be able to watch moving pictures and listen to audio.
Newspaper sales in this country are still strong, but many younger people prefer to get their news online, free of charge, where they can choose what they watch, listen to or read. (see Times Online TV - supplied by Reuters) As this becomes more 'the norm' it seems inevitable to me that journalists from both industries will work closer together.
Indeed, any journalists worth their salt will be able to turn their hand to a camera as readily as a keyboard.
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