Proximity breeds...

I wrote a few months back about the changes to what is now called the PBS Newshour. In addition to changing the name from "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer" the goal was to become an ongoing news source that integrated Web and broadcast content.

Well, some time has past, and this week I listened in on a "Webinar" given by the Newshour staff, specifically on how they have attempted to merge their Web and broadcast operations. The most significant step, as they saw it, was putting both groups in the same workspace. It used to be that the Web operation was in a separate building several blocks away. Now they are together in a large shared workspace. One you can see when new correspondent Hari Sreenivasan does updates on the program.

The value of this new approach was proven, according to the presenters, when news of the Ft. Hood shootings broke. While the broadcast staff started working the phones, they couldn't figure out what the online staff was up to. Thus the broadcasters were introduced to Twitter, which the Web people were using to try to find eyewitnesses and experts close to the scene.

Several of our organization's senior staff from radio, television and the Educational Communications Board were flown out to San Francisco by station KQED to learn more about their Quest project. This is a multimedia approach to science and environmental reporting that includes radio, TV, educators and community partners. They also emphasized that the first and most important step was gathering everyone in a single workspace.

Convergence was a big buzz word a few years ago to describe how all media was merging on the Web and other innovative technologies. But for many media outlets it really hasn't come together. To listen to the Newshour and Quest staff is to hear that proximity does not breed contempt, as the old saying goes, but collaboration.