2005 Annual Report - Online Newsroom Investment

One other point in trying to assess trends in news investment involves convergence, the merging of operations of different media, such as print, Web and TV, into a more integrated newsroom. Will convergence lead to further cutbacks, as news operations try to avoid duplication but fail to recognize the impact on quality of asking people to do more? There was some evidence in 2004 that convergence does not necessarily mean fewer people in the newsroom doing more work. The Tampa News Center, housing the Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV and TBO.com, had more journalists in 2004 than in 2000. This is also true for salespeople, since space still needs to be sold on different media.²⁰ Whether the workload has still increased, giving people less time to produce and edit stories, deserves further attention.