I've seen a few stories directly addressing a "bailout" for the media. The rest of them seem to dance around the subject as subliminal suggestions about how
bad the economy is, how it is affecting the people who write the news, and how those people deserve some cold hard cash from Uncle Sugar. Strangely enough, the stories are being written by the same people that are angling for some of that sweet, sweet gummint cheese. Here are two of them...
WUSA Moves to One-Person News Crews
Under a new agreement reached this week with its labor unions, WUSA, Channel 9, will become the first station in Washington to replace its crews with one-person "multimedia journalists" who will shoot and edit news stories single-handedly.
The change will blur the distinctions between the station's reporters and its camera and production people. Reporters will soon be shooting and editing their own stories, and camera people will be doing the work of reporters, occasionally appearing on the air or on in video clips on Channel 9's Web site.
For decades, TV journalists have worked in teams, with the lines of responsibility regulated by union rules or simple tradition. Stories were covered by a crew consisting of a camera operator and a correspondent (and further back, by a sound or lighting technician); their work was overseen by a producer and their footage assembled into a finished story by an editor.
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Report: Detroit papers likely to cut delivery
DETROIT (AP) -- The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press are leaning toward cutting home delivery to three days a week, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The Journal, quoting a person on its Web site whom it didn't name, said a final decision has not been made. But the newspaper calls it the "leading scenario."
The papers have separate newsrooms but their business operations are combined under a joint operating agreement.
Leland Bassett, a spokesman for the partnership, would neither confirm nor deny the Journal report but said a news conference was planned for Tuesday.
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Shameless self-interest, or a genuine cry for help?
