economy

ources and staff.

operation has got to come down economy has changed the to get back in line with the new news cost equation. “In order revenue realities.” However, the to sustain a level of quality,

EERING

greater the number of people relevance and value, the news-cut, the more it hurts and the room has to be re-engineered greater the impact on the on-air because we can’t afford to do it

time because broadcasters product, he said. the way we’re doing it now. We
must now change to operate in Look at the state of news- have no choice,” he said.
the new reality, said gumbert. papers, gumbert said. They Understanding workflow is
Staffing will be key to sur- cut their staffs and their pages, the most important component,
vival. “Newsrooms are going and they’re deteriorating. said Bob Ott, VP of Broadcast
to have to continue to reduce Readers are saying, “It’s not Professional Video and Audio
expenses,” gumbert said. “In what it used to be.” for Sony (Booth C11001). “Once
the end, the cost basis of the that understanding is fully
The new newsroom developed, the hardware is

If broadcasters follow the same chosen to best suit the needs
path, they will suffer a similar of the newsroom. In this
fate. The first step in plotting economic climate, stations are
a new course is recognizing looking at what cost-effective
that many newsrooms have solutions we have that will
not been operating efficiently migrate to the new workflow.
or productively. Before, broad- Keep in mind the longevity of
casters were sitting on 30 any new products, and select
percent to 50 percent margins, equipment that will work for
gumbert said. The system years to come,” he said.
wasn’t put under any stress, so There’s another reality
there wasn’t a need to change. that broadcasters must face.
However, the weakening Consumer wants are shifting,
gumbert said, and that shift is to
With the help of small, light online news. Broadcasters must
cameras, laptop-based make that shift with them to
editing and encoding as take advantage of the revenue
well as small portable opportunities. He suggested
BGAN satellite uplinks, reworking newsroom resources
CNN has transformed and staff to create content for
its newsgathering with two products.
highly mobile, one-person There are still evening and
crews reporting from nightly newscasts to produce,
international hotspots, but now consumers also want
such as this balcony of a continuous stream of local,
a Tehran, Iran, hotel. continued on page 50

Out-of-Home Media Mobile TV Show Highlights Content Production & Post Broadcast IPTV