1.    As a seasoned print reporter, has putting together multimedia projects changed the way in which you practice journalism? If so, how?

Tom Knudson: The basics of reporting – legwork, documents, talking to people  – remain the same. But how I do those things is starting to change – and for the better. Specifically, this means doing more interviews in digital format (for the Web), even doing some interviews in audio and video format (also for the Web); we are also scanning original government documents and converting them into PDF’s and putting them on the Web. This is something visitors to our web site seem to enjoy. It also adds another layer of credibility to our work.

2.    What specific advantages or disadvantages do you see in print and online journalism? Will one or the other be more prevalent in the near future? Will production of multimedia journalism depend on the subject matter of an article (for instance, environmental reporting vs. business reporting)?

Tom: Print reaches everyone who buys, or subscribes to, a newspaper; online reaches only those with computers.  Print is great for making an impact regionally – for example, in the Bee’s traditional readership area of northern California. Online is better for catching the attention of people across the country, including policy makers in Washington DC.

Print will definitely survive but it is evolving rapidly – to more web-based multi-media approaches – and this is good for everyone. It lets us reach more readers, do things more creatively, use things (photos, documents, etc.) that might not have made it into the paper and generally serve the public – and perform our watchdog function – better.  Not sure which will be more prevalent – we’ll have to wait and see.
    
3.      How does an editor’s job change with a multimedia project? Do journalists work more closely with their editors? Is one editor in charge or is the work split up between editors depending on specialty in print, photography, infographics, video, etc.?    

Amy Pyle: We all have to think earlier in the project about what aspects we want to enhance on the Web, so we can start the additional research, reporting, photography and/or artwork it may requite. Here at The Bee, I, as projects editor, meet early and often with my Web liaison, who brings in Web designers and enhancers as needed. I remain in charge of both the print and Web versions, although the managing editor of the Web site has final say in terms of which aspects of a project she deems either worth their effort or accomplishable with their current staffing levels.

4.    One editor of the New York Times has said he envisions the paper producing 30-40 multimedia projects daily in the future. But with declining circulations and meager predictions for their future, will newspapers continue to have the resources necessary to finance multimedia projects? If not, will they have to partner with other news organizations which may specialize in video or print?

Amy: We’re lucky here at The Bee because we are among the papers that continue to be more profitable than average. Our website is a priority for the future and I believe it will gradually get a larger share of the editorial budget here, perhaps through a consolidation with the newsroom. But, like Tom, I see this as a positive step.

We are faced with many retirements in the coming years and replacing those reporters and editors with reporters and editors with Web skills seems not only smart, but exciting. I actually believe this is the story at many papers and that, even where cuts have been deep, part of that cutting has been in favor of improvements at newspaper websites. In many cases, it is not an either/or, as it has been in the past, because so many reporters – veterans like Tom and newbies with built-in skills alike -- and photographers are embracing the Web and its needs in their work. (I also think the doom and gloom predictions about the print medium are gross exaggerations, fueled in part by illegal circulation practices at a few papers, that caused others to become far more conservative and, thus, show a dramatic decline in circulation on the books.)

5.      How long does a multimedia piece, such as yours on immigrant forest workers, take to produce? Can the return from advertising and syndication of multimedia projects make up for the man-hours spent compiling such a report, especially at a regional paper like the Sac Bee? What type of business models must newspapers adopt in order to support multimedia journalism?

Amy: The business side of this question is beyond my knowledge. In terms of the time it took to produce, for the most part it was a matter of a day or two here or there on the editorial side and several weeks at the website. While doing things well takes time, we are getting better at efficiencies that make these reasonable undertakings.

6.    How do you feel about the opportunity that online journalism gives to the reader in responding directly to your articles? Do you feel that this will improve or hurt journalism/news organizations?

Tom: I think it can only help. A traditional letters to the editor page has room for only a select few letters. This opens the door more widely. The more opinion, the better.