Round the corner. Perpetually.
Photo by Remiaru
Week one readings
“Backpack Journalism is here to Stay” – Jane Stevens
“Backpack Journalism is a Mush of Mediocrity” – Martha Stone
It’s easy to get lured into the ideals of backpack journalism and the idea of the backpack reporter. Yet, the current economic reality, in my opinion, seems to work against these ideals. While Stone presents some compelling figures on the consumption of online video and audio, that hardly translates into profits. Furthermore, at most newspapers, print ads remain the core bread and butter.
So it seems there is hardly any true incentive for the management of news organizations – especially print ones – to push for and invest in a team of backpack journalists, or even multimedia ones. “Does having a fancy flash site help bring in more advertisements?” I recall being asked by an editor once. Maybe, but only marginally. In economic speak, there is decreasing returns to scale. Furthermore, there is often also the fear that the website becomes so well done that it starts to cannibalize the print product.
The result is perhaps a supply side problem: Many young reporters eager to be multimedia or backpack journalists, spurred on by the ideals set out by Stevens, but there is little demand for it – or so it seems. Unless there’s a clearer economic incentive for multimedia on news sites, the backpack journalist will remain perpetually round the corner.
