Under an agreement this week with labor unions, Gannett's broadcast flagship will become the first station in a major market to replace crews with one-person "multimedia journalists," who shoot and edit stories single-handedly, The Washington Post says today. The station -- which is running last in the local ratings -- also plans an across-the-board cut in reporters' salaries as it increases their responsibilities. Multimedia journalists will earn 30% to 50% less than what traditional reporters have been earning, with salaries topping out at around $90,000 annually, the Post says, citing sources it doesn't identify at the station.
Friday, December 12, 2008
WUSA-TV: Union deal paves way to hire 'mojos'
Under an agreement this week with labor unions, Gannett's broadcast flagship will become the first station in a major market to replace crews with one-person "multimedia journalists," who shoot and edit stories single-handedly, The Washington Post says today. The station -- which is running last in the local ratings -- also plans an across-the-board cut in reporters' salaries as it increases their responsibilities. Multimedia journalists will earn 30% to 50% less than what traditional reporters have been earning, with salaries topping out at around $90,000 annually, the Post says, citing sources it doesn't identify at the station.
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I'm in print, but I assume there's checking and vetting at TV stations before stories are aired. Now, this will be the equivalent of a reporter posting his/her story directly to the Internet. Eventually, there will be enough corrections and retractions that (more) viewers will turn to other stations for their news.
ReplyDeleteOne man bands are nothing new where I'm from. Had a friend who did that for decades.
ReplyDeleteYou got it right, 9:58. But the game plan is to fire those who get it wrong, and hire only those who get it right. So don't screw up or cause the station to run a retraction and you will continue to enjoy employment. Screw up, and you are gone.
ReplyDelete9:58. Yes, print, that is the direction. May I also observe that it is the direction in print as well. Why do newspapers need copy desks and editing desks when people are posting pristine copy to the Web. We are entering a new world here that will no longer help out those who can't write a sentence, or do a standup without editors or producers.
ReplyDeleteLOL 9:58 and 10:27
ReplyDeleteLiving in an pretentious fantasy world.
Walter Duranty defines the major print media. Not only is fact checking not generally practiced - it isn't even a virtue within the press (excepting a desire to have the public wrongly assume that it happens regularly).
The general public now has noticed that Duranty's Pulitzer was never retracted. Ergot truth is unimportant withing the major media as a whole and has not been within the lifetime of most members of the public.
Jason Blair was not by any stretch of the imagination an anomaly.
When you can show Duranty's Pulitzer was withdrawn - then you might be able to advance the notion that the major press is going to start valuing truth. If you wish to promote the ludicrous notion that the press has always had an interest in getting the story right, then proving Duranty's Pulitzer was taken back decades ago is a requirement to even get in the door. Good luck with that.
In my market, the union paves the way to keep mofos.
ReplyDeleteIt's security through seniority, and our geezer is one mean motherf...shut yo mouth.
First off, WUSA is far from the flagship station in the tf group - KARE or KUSA, yes, but WUSA has been the runt of the litter for years, and has had a stranglehold on the bottom of the ratings in that DMA for years.
ReplyDeleteSo trying to make MoJo (I remember the term as SoJo Solo Journalists) do all the work, all the time is just another desperate cost-cutting measure.
And, it's just going to fill the airwaves with crap stories that one person can do. Do you seriously think that an I-Team is going down to one guy/gal, doing all the legwork, interviews, shooting and editing? Yeah, right...
Considering anchor/reporter salaries are much more market driven than print, I can't see how many anchors or reporters can find this surprising or even all that disappointing. Contract employees enjoy the good times and suffer the bad times far more than salaried employees, many or most of whom haven't had their salaries adjusted to inflation since they began. Talent may decide to flee, but in this economy, I imagine they'd have to leave the country and fluently speak a foreign language to find more competitive contract dollars.
ReplyDeleteThe only people I might feel bad for are the many recent college grads who will be taking those mojo jobs at barely a livable wage.
The so called "union deals" simply allow the sharing of jurisdiction. Had an employee had a dual-union membership in the past; they could perform both functions.
ReplyDeleteThe bigger story is the institutional and beat knowledge that will soon walk out the door.
Well their ratings are in the basement so WTF?
Under active Gannett management since 1995 the station has had 6 General Managers and 7 news directors. A different name, sorry "brand" each year and revolving anchors almost daily.
Simply the problem has never been the reporters or most of the anchors. Many have crossed the street to lead the competitors to ratings and revenue gain.
Gannett is so used to operating as they damn well please in the environment of market monopoly newspapers...that they do the same in TV.
The problem is that in TV there are 3 or 4 competitors (6 in Phoenix) that have equal coverage.
Let's take a year or two and see if Denver and Minneapolis maintain their top rating.
This story sheds a whole new light on a conversation our ND just had with our reporters this past week. He told them that starting REAL SOON everyone will be required to shoot and edit their own package once a week to "test this skills." Now, I just have the feeling its to prep them for what sister station WUSA did.
ReplyDeleteI noticed this ad at careerbuilder:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?sc_extcmp=JS_JobAlert_Title&ipath=PSSG00M&psa=1&Job_DID=J8A3KH6BM6QLCCRTT7Z
Actual quote from my editor when Reno began its online push four or so years ago: "One source is enough for this. Just get it up on the web. We can fix it later." the story had major holes and resulted in the next thing to a full, groveling retraction (glad I saved the email...).
ReplyDelete