Tuesday, July 29, 2008

What is in it for me?

"See the problem with having an integrated newsroom the way you envision it is that owners will probably make their employees work even more for nothing.", a friend in the profession called me up to complain about yesterday's post. His logic is simple, ET is trying to have an integrated newsroom for print and television, yet some print guys have told me that they don't want to working pre-market shows at nine in the morning and also filing breaking news stories at nine at night without a clearly defined compensation policy.
The question that many reporters, and more usually the 'star' reporters in organisations are asking, "What is in it for me?" And that is frankly a question that editors and management will have to grapple with, web stories can't be transcribed TV reports or held back till the edition is printed. Convincing people to file 10 50-word blog posts in a month is nigh-high impossible, imagine telling people to blog daily, even short snappy posts with a link.
So in addition to yesterday's post, it isn't just about systems and technology it is also about the people who fill in the content. If you believe some speakers at a recent internet seminar I participated in, it is all about the content and technology really doesn't matter.
And Sakaal Times is letting people go by the dozen. Quite sad, since quite a few people had joined up at that paper and they had a very comprehensive launch program covering Maharashtra, which might still happen, but a Delhi-headquartered paper was always dicey.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ref Sakaal Times.
The problem with a lot of these hotshot Delhi journos, is that they believe they are God's gift to mankind. They remind me of AB's character in KGKG. Like him, there's is always the last word! And no arguments please!!

Anonymous said...

K,

Journos in your organisation were also asking for more money for similar work. so give it a rest already.