Cognitive Dissonance and the One-Man Band

You ever have one of those weeks where the front part just doesn’t match up with the back part?  I did, just last week.

For months in advance, Monday December 8 had been block-booked for all shooters, audio people, producers and production types at Wisconsin Public Television, to make it possible for them to attend a seminar entitled “Storytelling Is A Team Sport.”  It was given by Boyd Huppert and Jonathan Malat, a reporter and photojournalist (respectively) from KARE11-TV, the NBC affiliate in Minneapolis.  While they still have to do the basic news assignments that make up the bulk of a TV newscast, KARE blocks out sections of their shows for longer-form stories, up to 5 minutes in length.  And in a very competitive news market, KARE is always found at or near the top of the ratings.  Huppert and Malat have created a brand for their work entitled “Land of 10,000 Stories,” and the examples they showed us were stellar.  You could tell just by the way they traded back and forth that they had a great sync, one covering the other’s back, then seamlessly switching places.

They spoke for about six hours, and I can honestly say I wasn’t bored for a second.  Some of the tips they offered - put a curly-cord on your shotgun mic, so you can pop it off the camera and get it closer to the subject, or in the dark use a laptop screen as an impromptu softlight - are quite applicable to the work we do at WPT.  And it is always good to get a sense of what the other guys are doing.  I came away with a bit more energy for my next assignment.

Then Friday rolls around, and Jim Feeley sends me this link from the Washington Post.  If you don’t want to click the link, I’ll print the headline for you:

WUSA Moves to One-Person News Crews

That’s right. In Washington DC, the ninth-largest TV market,  one-person crews will be shooting, reporting, and editing stories for a network affiliate.  From the article:

”“We believe strongly that [this change] will raise both the quality and quantity of the product we’re putting out” on TV and on the internet, said Allan Horlick, the president and general manager of WUSA, in an interview yesterday.”

Oh yeah, one more thing:  The “Mo-Jos” - mobile journalists - are getting their pay cut.  A lot.  FTA:

WUSA—owned by McLean-based media giant Gannett—plans an across-the-board cut in reporters’ salaries as it increases their responsibilities. Multimedia journalists will earn 30 to 50 percent less than what traditional reporters have been earning, with salaries topping out at around $90,000 annually, according to people at the station.

Funny, but that doesn’t sound like the recipe for increased “quality” in reporting and shooting.  Quantity, yeah, probably.  Quality?  Give me a break.  And lets not forget that reporting from the streets of any major American city can be dangerous, from traffic to camera thieves to basic run-of-the-mill mugging.  It’s important to have a second pair of eyes to keep both of you safe.

Yes, I understand that the dismal economy and future tech both tend to be pushing against the newspaper and broadcasting businesses.  But Gannett actually INCREASED their stock dividend this year.  And a listing of all their newspaper properties show that in 2007 all but one was profitable.  Somehow I doubt Gannett is going to disappear tomorrow.

Now, the more aware of you may have already sniffed out the O. Henry ending to this tale.  KARE11, that station where Boyd Huppert and Jon Malat do such great team-driven storytelling?  Oh yeah: it is also owned by Gannett.

So what do you think?  Should video journalism be a lowest-cost affair?  Or is it worthwhile to pay professional wages for professional work?  I know where I stand.

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