Page 35 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

The Multimedia Assignment Editor and Producer

• Convergence is the level at which partners have a shared
assignment/editor’s desk and the story is developed by team
members who use the strengths of each medium to best tell the
story.

At the left end of the continuum shown in Figure 2.1 is the cross-
promotion level in which the least amount of cooperation and interac-
tion occurs among members of the different news organizations. At
this level, the media outlets promote the content of their partners
through the use of words or visual elements. A newspaper, for example,
might place a television station’s logo within an article, or a televi-
sion news anchor might direct viewers to the newspaper or a common
Web site for more information on a story. The outlets do not work
together to produce content.
To the right of cross-promotion is cloning, a practice in which one
partner republishes the other partner’s product with little editing (e.g.,
content from a newspaper is displayed on a TV partner’s Web site or
jointly owned Web portal). News outlets at the cloning level do not 25
discuss their newsgathering plans and share content only after a story
has been completed.
In the center of the continuum is coopetition, the stage at which news
outlets both cooperate and compete. At this level, the staff members
of separate media outlets promote and share information about some
stories on which they are working. One entity also might produce
some content for its partner, but at this level, years of competition
and cultural differences combine to create mutual distrust that limits
the degree of cooperation and interaction. For example, a newspaper
reporter might appear as an expert or commentator on a television
station’s newscast to discuss a current issue, but the two staffs are
careful not to divulge any information that might be exclusive to their
news products.
The fourth stop on the model is content sharing, the level at which a
media outlet regularly (but not always) shares information gathered by
its cross-media partner and publishes it after it has been repackaged by
the organization’s staff members. The partners also might share news
budgets or attend the other partner’s planning sessions. Collaboration
on a special, investigative, or enterprise piece is possible. In general,
however, the news organizations produce their own stories without
helping each other.