The Cable Gamer was plenty interested to see Brian Stelter's
seeming scoop in the August 12 edition of The New York Times, headlined, "TV Networks Rewrite the Definition of a News Bureau."
Here's Stelter's lede: "CNN announced on Tuesday that it would assign journalists to 10 cities across the United States, a move that would double the number of domestic cities where the cable news network has outposts." Now that sounds pretty cool, huh? We cover the waterfront, etc.
In the next graf, Stelter added a few more points:
But in a reflection of the way television networks are reinventing the way they gather news, the journalists will not work from expensive bureaus — rather, they will borrow office space from local news organizations and use laptops to file articles for the Internet and TV. When news happens, they will use Internet connections and cellphone cameras to report live.
Now that seems OK, too--CNN is lean and mean, low to the ground, all that good stuff. And after all, communications technology is so much lighter and easier now that one person can do the work of several.
Indeed, both the Associated Press and The Hollywood Reporter picked up on this storyline, praising CNN for having the digital-era vision to remake reporters into "all-platform journalists." How cool! How Googley, even!
But then along comes the Phil Rosenthal, writing on Wednesday for The Chicago Tribune, to clarify the real deal in a story headlined: "Expansion thins CNN's Chicago staff."
Thins? That sure is a different spin than the Times and its followers. Did Stelter, one on the greatest Cable Gamers working today, get gamed by CNN?
Rosenthal lays it out:
What CNN is calling expansion will mean reducing the number of staffers assigned to its bureau in Chicago by 25 percent, to nine from a dozen.
Instead, it is scattering "all-platform journalists" across the map, each working solo in locales such as Columbus, Ohio, and Minneapolis until reinforcements are needed.
Indeed, under the new plan, the Chicago bureau will be, uh, all platformed:
CNN's expansion plan also calls for elimination of its Chicago-based position of Midwest bureau chief. Reporters here will answer to Pete Janos, the Los Angeles-based Western region chief.
Christian "Fuzz" Hogan, an 11-year CNN veteran named Midwest chief almost two years ago to coordinate coverage from not only here but also bureaus in Dallas and Denver, is among those in the Chicago office displaced.
Got that? Less is more!
CNN must do what it must do, and its flacks must say what they must say, but happily, the rest of us have Phil Rosenthal, keeping 'em honest.
