ABC News is wrestling with what to do as it cuts 25% of its 1,400-person staff and halves its ranks of bureau correspondents, replacing them with two dozen digital journalists. Network executives say smaller cameras and laptop editing software offer them a lifeline as they struggle to contain costs. Instead of relying on different people to produce, report, shoot and edit stories, one or two people with the right equipment can handle those tasks. CNN has four such reporters working around the country, and Fox News uses solitary reporter-producers in remote places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. NBC News estimates that 20% of the network's on-air stories are digitally produced.
Some veteran broadcasters are skeptical that digital journalists, burdened by so many duties, can effectively cover a story.
Read more at the LA Times.
