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[Al Skierkiewicz]

Mark,
NBC and Fox are both going the way of the "content producer". They are using the little Panasonic camera with memory stick media. An assignment is given and the shooter goes out and collects video including his/her own standup, then goes back to the car and edits on Final Cut, writes the dialog and then cuts that as well using their laptop. Then runs to a Starbucks or McD that has free wifi and uploads the story. The only people who like this idea are the management people. The shooters, reporters, editors and most importantly the audience doesn't seem happy with the new way of doing things. It has also cost a lot of jobs and the unions are all balking at it. Here in Chicago, Local News Service has begun where one shooter goes out and produces a piece without a reporter and then sends it to all the LNS subscribers. Those stations that subscribe ( and not all have) provide one crew per day and there is one assignment editor who parses out the crews. As you can imagine lot's of news is being missed because there is no one shooting the back story or the other behind the scenes video. No reporter means there is no professional to ask questions or put a slant on the story. It is an experiment but has already cost about 50 jobs in those member stations.