Mark Cuban yesterday suggested that the solution to what ails print journalism is convergence -- turn print journalists into TV journalists as well. He says:
Put simply, a NY Times reporter with a camera crew can reach every medium available today. Right now any video that reporter captures is relegated to the net. Instead, that resource could be available to a network news department , the net, heck, even as part of a DVD series or to theaters as part of a weekly series. We would show it at Landmark Theaters.
He also blames "arrogance" on the fact that this hasn't happened more rapidly.
To speak in Mark's terms, what he is suggesting is that because basketball players tend to be big, tall, fast, agile, that the answer to an underperforming football team would be to have the basketball team do double duty and put on pads. The only reason they don't, is because of the arrogance of the football team.
Now, as in any endeavor, there are people who are so talented they thrive in new endeavors even lightly linked to their old areas of expertise. And so there are certainly print journalists who would be good at creating great and insightful video content and vice versa, but the fact is that the mediums are NOT the same, in content needed, pacing, timing etc.
Mark does close with an interesting question:
One of the biggest all time product branding blunders in any business is newspaper columnists and reporters calling what they write on the web a blog. When you have a reporter in the field offering online updates and you call it a blog, you define them as peers of the many unwashed masses who post on a blog, myself included. Suzy and Don on myspace have a blog, and so does your intrepid reporter. Its not too late to come up with a name to brand what professionals call their timely infield updates. Its the only way you are going to differentiate your news organization from user generated content.
The comment thread on Mark's post is quite good and worth a read, just on its own.