Convergence newsroom

Photo by Michael Beam

Sarasota Herald-Tribune photo director Mike Lang shows the Ernie Pyle Scholars the Sarasota News Network’s studio Friday. The Herald-Tribune operates SNN News 6, a local 24-hour news network.

At the center of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s newsroom, the paper’s section editors construct the layout for the weekend’s stories. Minutes before the editors scatter off to complete their respective assignments, the news director for Sarasota News Network, the 24-hour cable news network housed within the Herald-Tribune, rushes to the desk to share his last-minute story ideas with the print journalists.

Television journalists sharing their stories with the print journalists? It’s routine for those at the Herald-Tribune.

Our visit to the Herald-Tribune newsroom was the culmination of our weeklong convergence study. News organizations have embraced the gradual marriage of print, broadcast and online journalism, and the Herald-Tribune is one of the first newspaper companies to integrate broadcast into its news coverage. The honeymoon, however, has been short-lived.

Empty desks are all that remain from the Herald-Tribune’s former feature section that was completely eliminated last month. SNN’s two-full time reporters and five photographers must rely on the paper’s reporters to supplement their 24-hour coverage. And with the Herald-Tribune’s parent company, The New York Times, calling for smaller staffs and bigger profits, executive editor Mike Connolly said staff lay-offs are common within today’s news organizations.

“The newspaper industry is facing staff reductions across the board,” Connolly said. “But what hasn’t changed is the need for people who can ask the tough questions and get people to say things to them that they shouldn’t be saying to anyone else.”

Connolly has yet to give up on traditional print journalism. A daily reader of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and several other national and local publications, Connolly said “the most serious stories can only be found in newspapers.” Newspapers can provide more space for reporting than a 30-second broadcast package. At the Herald-Tribune, print journalists also serve double-duty as television commentators and reporters for SNN.

Our visits with the Florida journalists have significantly changed my perception of the profession. Not only are recent graduates expected to be talented reporters, but they’re also expected to be video producers, photographers and editors. The definition of journalism has greatly expanded since the rise of the Internet. Despite the journalist’s changing role, Connolly said the fundamentals remain the same.

“The newsroom may change,” Connolly said. “But we still get to cover the type of stories, the important ones that make a difference, that make us go into journalism in the first place.”
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