For all of Media General’s talk about convergence, and how it makes the Tampa Tribune, WFLA NewsChannel8, and TBO a leader in news gathering and dissemination, I am less than impressed.
The News Center opened in March 2000. Back in 2004, a USF study says that convergence has “hardly happened” for Media General. Here in 2007, I think they are no closer to serving “more people better” than in 1999.
Did you read Media General’s idea of convergence? (emphasis added)
Convergence at Media General combines multimedia resources – print, television, the Internet and, though partnerships, radio – to serve more people better. Convergence delivers stronger local journalism by sharing news gathering and reporting resources. By becoming the preferred local provider of news and information, and increasing audience share, convergence drives revenue growth. With the Internet, every Media General market is a convergence market. In six markets, Media General has implemented convergence across three media platforms.
Tampa, Fla., is our most advanced convergence market, the home of The Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV, TBO.com and beginning in 2005, CENTRO Grupo De Comunicación. Sharing tips, leads, information and background knowledge has become routine at our Tampa News Center, the world’s first facility built for multimedia production.
C’mon. They are not serving people better. They are directing people to the other platforms, and they are not even doing that well. Some WFLA newscasts seem to be no more than a half-hour infomercial for the Tribune, and the Tribune does not have space for all the information. The place where you should be able to find it all, TBO.com, is just a mess. And I’m not the only one that thinks so:
I look at the Tampa Web site from time to time, and frankly, it leaves a lot to be desired. You may disagree, but to me, judging the Web site of a news organization is the only practical way to evaluate that news organization today. If the Web site is poor, like Tampa’s, then the news organization is in trouble.
That’s a quote from UF journalism professor Mindy McAdams. She uses TBO.com to prove that convergence is dead.
To be fair, the St. Pete Times is not doing much better. The Times uses Google to search archives, and doesn’t even bother with “keywords.” They don’t offer any RSS feeds. They do have web specials and special reports where you can find all the information on a given topic in one place, but if they don’t specifically address it, it’s not there (mass transit, for instance).
It’s easy to bitch about these things – technology evolves so rapidly, it seems impossible to keep up with it. And please keep in mind, this is not a rant on their abilities to report the news. Both employ reporters who do a great job at reporting. And some of the multi-media work is absolutely fantastic (experience TBO’s Restoring the Everglades). But newspapers are a huge, HUGE database of information, and they must begin to address the (in)ability to sort through all of it, whether convergence lives or dies.
dcdave
3 years ago
The problem is that they don’t get convergence. Convergence is simply delivering the new and information people want, however they want it. TBO is too busy wishing people wanted what it has to offer, instead of giving people what they want.
dcdave
3 years ago
This is a fantastic article from a true visionary in the industry, Rob Curley. Once you read this, you’ll see exactly who gets it and why TBO gets it wrong.
Dawn
3 years ago
Conglomeration doesn’t equal convergence. And though every media company knows they need to get with it, few back up all their talk with action.
TribMuffin
3 years ago
I was there just before 2000 when convergence started t be bantied about, and I gave some of my ideas on how the platforms could cross, but they were all shot down.
They wanted to have Trib reporters doing TV work, and TV reporters doing Trib work. I used to do radio and newspaper at the same time, so I knew how different those two media were, let alone television and newspaper (there’s a reason why you’re either one or the other). I suggested that instead, they put reporters on more as a quasi-expert to talk about an event or something on TV, where they are being asked questions. Instead, I remember turning on WFLA on morning and hearing William March giving the best Ben Stein Without Caffeine impression ever. It was horrible.
They really don’t understand how to converge the platforms, and continue to miss the mark over and over again. Their Web sites are a cluster-you-know-what that are almost impossible to navigate, and it amazes me that anyone even tries.
John
3 years ago
You know, this all reminds me of the big bally-hoo that AOL made when it acquired Time Warner. Cross Promotion! Convergence! Multimedia! And the horrid AOL software!
I’ve seen the concept played around with in the early 1990’s (pre-mass enrollment onto the internet through the Prodigy interactive service — they partnered with ESPN and promised all these bells and whistles that really were nothing). And of course we see it here.
But in essence, what is going on with Media General is the fact they are a for-profit news organization trying to get ahead on Wall Street. They aren’t interested in serving people better as much as cutting costs. Reporters in the newspaper means less Newspaper staff. Newspaper staff on TV means less TV personalities.
Media General has been consolidating operations for more than a decade (and longer) and all it’s gotten people is less coverage and lower quality products both on the web, on TV and in print.
vox
3 years ago
This is a very good subject. Thanks for this, Tommy.
Tampa gets it wrong on purpose. Like usual. But, there is a method to the madness — buckpassing …. etc…
tommy
3 years ago
Wow. I thought there would be someone defending the newspapers… How do they fix it?
dreaming
3 years ago
convergence was a quaint concept in the late 90s and early 2000s, but then newspapers started shrinking. thats stopped the parade. of the 3 media general ‘platforms’ in tampa, tbo is the weakest, but should be the strongest, or at least second strongest after the cash cow that is wfla. but tbo is a sad mess. some conspiracy buffs think thats to keep eyeballs away so people will buy the newspaper. of course, thats wrong. the truth is that mg is relatively incompetent at its online operations. the newspaper staff still looks at the website as an afterthought because most of the staff and all of the management are dinosaurs. the sptimes has noticed the latest weakness of the trib and is actually beefing up its 40 year old war to put the trib out of business in hillsborough by adding staff in brandon etc, even though they abandoned citrus.
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » Blog Archive » hart is driven to swerve
2 years ago
[...] to a printed story in the Tribune (Surprise!! I cannot find the story online!!) only six board members were able to make it to the meeting, completely wasting the time [...]
Becky Blanton
1 year ago
I worked for Media General until last week. I was part of the move to “Convergence.” They don’t get it. They never will. MG is TOTALLY incompetent when it comes to online operations. They turned down all attempts from staffers who understand what it means and how it works to protect their own jobs. They’re understaffed, overworked and undertrained. Their sites are hard to read, contain national instead of local news and they don’t listen to reader feedback. “Convergence” to MG means firing more people and combining jobs to increase profit. It means weaker content, poorer coverage and unhappy readers. Add to that the fact that the turnover is incredible – most folks in Danville leave within 6 months of arriving…and the fact they chase talent away – morale sucks and so does management…all part of how they are failing to plan and thus planning to fail. Read my blog for more on the two EEOC complaints and the reporter who filmed women’s breasts without their knowledge or consent and then showed them around the newsroom….you’ll get an idea of why MG sucks from the corporate level on down…
Becky Blanton
1 year ago
My blog…. http://www.danvilleva.blogspot.com
Becky Blanton
1 year ago
http://www.danvilleva.blogspot.com