I hate to start my blog on what is to some respect, an unfortunate subject that is close to me. I believe it is relevant to what is may be a long post of future subjects regrading the changing face of media. The other day, CBS 2 Chicago, a broadcaster that I was proudly affiliated with two years prior, had a large and public layoff that included a eighteen high profile anchors, reporters and seasoned staff. This followed an earlier smaller staff layoff from the week prior. There is a shift happening in our media market that is taking place faster than I anticipated. I left CBS 2, difficult as it was to make the decision, because I realized that in a few years people’s changing habits might adversely affect my career in a way that I would not be able to avoid. That change is happening quicker than I imagined. Are the days of highly paid anchors a thing of the past? Will they be replaced with fresh-faced younger members who lack experience but reach a younger audience? Is reading the news off a prompter any different than a youtube or podcast? The unfortunate concern for me is when great professionals who have dedicated their lives to the refinement of news media are cast aside in the wake of shifting mediums. What happens to solid journalism between turning off your television and opening your computer for the latest RSS feed? During the four years in broadcast, I struggled with the balance between relevant but tragic journalism that bled and a grandmother who found her stolen wheelchair - in order to reach a general audience. What is the lesser or two evils in a half hour time slot? When award winning journalists are cut for cut-rate costs, who wins? You can easily shrug it off assuming they were just overpaid. Somewhere between the eastern hemisphere of African genocide and the silent rape crime that happened on the west side, we need to stay informed either by television or an internet stream. Cautiously, we must be of our habits though. Viewer habits in the distraction of overwhelming headlines, are quite different on-line. Lost are if we choose what we want to hear. We have a tendency to tune out what we don’t want to hear and it’s usually the seasoned journalists that remind us what we don’t, but need to hear.
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