Converged Newsroom

   The Daily Kent Stater, Black Squirrel Radio and TV-2 now share one newsroom, one website, and one assignment desk all under the name of KentNewsNet.com. 
     “I never thought as a freshman I would see this happen,” said Kaitlyn Lionti, TV-2 News Director.
     In the newly configured newsroom the assignment editor is not only the first person you see when you walk in the door—that person sorts through news events and tips and decide how the daily assignments will be covered.  
     “The assignment editor helps with the day-to-day gathering of contacts and information,” said Lionti. “It helps us become more connected to student organizations and the community.  It helps us work together to figure out how to cover stories.”
     The converged newsroom combines broadcast and print in a way that transforms journalists into content providers.  Newspaper reporters will produce stories throughout the day, using video and audio to deliver stories to the Web.  And TV and radio broadcast reporters will write Web stories as well as produce multimedia content that will be posted online—even before the evening news airs on television.
     Lionti said, “Sharing information and resources will only make our coverage stronger.”
     The move to Franklin Hall gives students the opportunity to experience media convergence before many professionals see it become a reality where they work.
    “It’s clearly the way journalism is headed,” said Robert Rosenbaum, publisher, Penton Media.
     The changes student media are experiencing today will make them more marketable later in their profession.  “It’s not enough anymore to be a TV, Newspaper or Radio – and that’s where JMC has it right, said Rosenbam. “ I believe that’s where JMC is pretty much on the leading edge.”

     Rosenbaum is on the JMC Professional Advisory Board and recently visited Franklin Hall. 
    “What really brought it home for me, and kind of blew me away, was to walk into the unfinished newsroom and see how it’s laid out and to recognize that every day student journalists will walk in and the very first thing that they’re going to see is an assignment editor whose job it is to do triage and determine which media channel is going to be served first by a given story and how.”   
 “People ought to be thinking my job is to generate great content: does it go online, does it go on the air, does it go into a magazine, does it go into a daily newspaper, or does it go on the radio?”
     Rachel Abbey is Fall 2007 editor of the Daily Kent Stater.  She has been involved in planning how the converged newsroom staff will work together.  Abbey said she is excited to move the Stater from Taylor Hall to the newly renovated Franklin Hall before the semester ends so she can help the organization adapt to the changes.
     “I’m honored that I’ve had a chance to be involved in this,” said Abbey “The industry has to change or it will die.”
    Rosenbaum agrees.  He said “as a media outlet – ultimately the revenue comes from being a partner to marketers.”
     “You need to suck up to your advertisers and provide them with services that help them,” said Rosenbaum.  “What they are all saying is the service I need is to be able to reach that audience.  I can no longer control how that audience is going to come and get my information so I want my media partners to be able to provide that information no matter when and where my audience wants it.”
     Only a few years ago, a rivalry existed between TV-2 and the Stater.  Now they have a morning convergence meeting to discuss what stories will be covered and how.
     “We actively tried to [the rivalry] make it go away,” said Abbey.
     Convergence -- and KentNewsNet -- have pretty much eliminated the competition between print and broadcast.
     “Four years from now every new young journalist will understand ‘I am a content provider’ regardless of the media, regardless of the channel,” said Rosenbaum.
     At Kent State University, according to Rosenbaum, “It’s being done right at the bottom.”

— Kim Graves, The Co-Lab