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First video killed the radio star, and now technology is killing editing and videographer jobs — at least at CNN. The cable news network today laid off 50 staffers in the Atlanta, New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, and Miami offices. The bulk of the cuts are among editors, photojournalists, and librarians. CNN SVP Jack Womack explained they were caused by the ability for virtually anyone to edit and publish video on their computers, or search for background information online, and by the proliferation of viewer-generated video that is used more and more in professional news coverage, especially on breaking news. “Technology investments in our newsrooms now allow more desk-top editing and publishing for broadcast and online,” he wrote in an internal email. “This evolution allows more people in more places to edit and publish than ever before. As a result of these technology and workflow changes, CNN is reducing the number of media editors in our work force in Atlanta. … We looked at the impact of user-generated content and social media, CNN iReporters and of course our affiliate contributions in breaking news. Consumer and pro-sumer technologies are simpler and more accessible. Small cameras are now high broadcast quality. More of this technology is in the hands of more people. After completing this analysis, CNN determined that some photojournalists will be departing the company.”
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
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Hooray. Does that mean we’re finally free of Piers Morgan?
“pro-sumer” ? REALLY?!? gah…
The news-gathering process is crucial to the veracity of a story. Who’s going to fact-check CNN now, Wikipedia? First the networks compromised their integrity by closing their international bureaus and relying on freelancers. That bought us PR companies providing free footage and all the spin that comes with it. Now when a preditor (that’s a combination producer and editor) can excrete a story right onto the air, who stands there to check it? What’s the new paradigm, TMZ?
CNN fact checks others. No one need fact check CNN. It’s a one-way street when media meets politics in the fact-checking arena.
What does the location of editing, desktop versus overpaid-union-drone, have to do with fact-checking??! Producers still verify to avoid libelous mistakes. And no one has eliminated the producers’ overseer, either. It’s still vertical control of the message, regardless of the professionalism of the person shooting or editing the story.
For more on the story we go live to Atlanta where CNN correspondent Tameka Johnson has graciously offered to play hooky from her 8th grade science class to be with us. Tameka?
It’s sad how accurate this can and will probably be.
Just because “anyone” can shoot and edit video doesn’t mean it will be good.
Didn’t the book Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen already cover this story?
What happened to CNN? They used to be a great company. Now it’s soul less and corporate. None of the anchors on either Headline News or CNN are talented or memorable. It’s a shame.
You are soooo right… It’s a damn shame, how far they’ve fallen…
Yes get rid of the editors, sure anybody can edit on a Lap Top. Those Videos are all over You Tube. So I guess the quality of CNN programming will equal the quality of YouTube. As a Producer I can tell U editing is a unique skill, a combination of creative and tech. To say ‘anyone’ can do it on a Lap Top just shows how disconnected Media Executives are from what it takes to create Media. Even though all their profits are up, they complain they are loosing viewers. Maybe whether news, or entertainment the content they are ‘producing with interns on their laptops is just crap.
If you were a producer, you would know the word weather is not spelled ‘whether’…. and “loosing” I fear is a typo which you did not catch…sure it was suppose to have been “losing”…but I agree with you on the points you made. I am a former CNNRadio News Anchor/Editor from Atlanta and lost my job after ten years in Jan. of 2010 in a massive layoff…more followed within the next couple of months. After not finding work and living off a nice severance package, I finally decided to accept retirement but I would still like to be doing some air work as long as I can read, write and talk! I am doing voice work for the radio station here in the NC mtns we moved back to. I used to be ops mgr and morning man at that station before going to Atlanta.
You have no business pointing out anyone’s errors if you don’t even know the difference between the words whether and weather. I think you should scratch writing off your list of career goals.
Please note that none of the layoff victims were on-air talent. They were all writers, producers, videographers — the folks who do the actual newsgathering and editing. It represents a further hollowing out of an organization that was great in its heyday but grows weaker and more superficial with each passing year.
The biggest problem in broadcast/e-journalism nowadays is verifying the provenance of information. How do you know X or Y is true? In the old days news orgs had vertical control over newsgathering and verification, so by the time something hit the air you knew it was true. CNN has resolutely dismembered that model, outsourcing newsgathering and yanking out the verification filters. So now you are left with a bunch of high-priced talent delivering a bunch of found material from God knows where that may or may not be true. Also, more funny cat videos ripped off from the Internet, which execs like because (A) they’re free, (B) audiences dig them, and (C) nobody cares how “real” they are.
As a CNN alum it pains me to see the ship go down in this fashion.
Remind me again of when CNN was great. You mean during the Gulf War when Arthur “The Scud Stud” Kent was reporting?
Of all CNN’s embarrassments, Arthur Kent was not one of them. Th Scud Stud worked for NBC.
“superficial” nails it. I’ll never forget their 24/7 sensational “reporting” after Anna Nicole Smith died– that was around the time I stopped watching them at all.
Is Anna Nichole Smith still dead?
I would love to hear what Ted Turner has to say about all this. He became disallusioned some years ago when stock dropped drastically and he lost millions (maybe it was billions) of dollars because of bad moves and decisions by Time Warner…the people he sold his company to. Many people, at that time, begged Ted Turner to buy it back but he said it would no longer be an option and stepped away from most of the day-to-day operations and the position he still held on the board.
Mr. Turner, speak up….what are your thoughts?!!
Before someone comments…I realize I misspelled “disillusioned”. There I go doing something I criticized someone else for! Am I bad?!!
the editor of one of the bbc’s film shows looks barely 20 years old.
The promise of 24/7 cable news in the USA went off the track.
On any given Saturday night, the line up is as follows:
1.) CNN showing news magazines
2.) MSNBC showing ‘LockUp: New Mexico’ or a serial killer program
3.) FOX blabbing about how horrible President Obama is and how superior the Republicans are
No wonder the ratings for the Big Three networks evening news programs are up 11% or higher in some markets.
Fox continues to climb in the ratings. I guess, in the current world/economy, bashing on Obama and democrats is not only approprite but entertaining.
They should fire some of there over paid on air talent and stick to hard news……but that would be stupid.
CNN iReporters, user generated content: of course as CNN does not pay for this stuff and dumb viewers send this stuff in for free when they should be getting paid for it.
Infotainment isn’t informative or entertaining. I only watch cable and commercial broadcast news when there’s force majeure
I call bullshit.
CNN should blame its use of technology, not the technology itself. Just because technology can make work easier doesn’t mean it should be doing the work. Just because technology has made user-generated content readily available, doesn’t mean that it takes away from professional news gathering and reporting.
#OccupyCNN
But technology, by its nature, doesn’t just present an “option” for efficiency. That is a myth which gives us the comforting illusion that our problems and dilemmas originate in the evil conspiracies of a few all knowing, omnipotent shot callers. Technology is an ever expanding, self generating system that itself requires and imposes efficiency in every area where it is allowed. In a competitive business environment, its not only allowed, but worshiped as the source of awe and dread in the modern world, not to mention short term profit.
I really like CNN but I stopped watching after they brought in that simpering fool who replaced Larry King. I just got out of the habit of watching CNN. I will come back if they dump that guy and give Soledad O’Brien her own show.
Back in the early days of CNN, I was fresh out of college and hired as an editor there for minimum wage. Other news organizations called us “Chicken Noodle News” and it was a title we despised, but probably deserved. Now the network has come full circle and once again earned this name. Shame on you CNN.
On a similar note, it appears any idiot can be SVP at CNN.
“All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace.” They and we are fast becoming nothing more than replaceable, disposable nodes in a vast, closed loop cybernetic system. At an accelerating rate, we conform to the requirements of this soulless, inhumane system, where efficiency is no longer just recommended, discussed and shaped to meet human needs but is simply imposed in every area of life that becomes frantically busy and anxious, absurdly pointless from any authentic human perspective and, in the end, extravagantly abusive, murderous and suicidal.
Let’s hear it for Adam Curtis!
So true they let anyone report these days.
That shrill, nasal Kosik. Check her cv.
Awful, only background in money is presenting for CNN.
But, a fair face and cleavage go a long way, especially after the markets close.
Journalism…I remember it…worked in it…I still find it from time to time when I use my own dig-it-up-and-find-it capabilities hammered into me by, guess who…JOURNALISTS!
It will take a complete overhaul of CNN to bring it to a concept of journalism…for now, sadly, it is Cable Nooze Nonsense.
Peter Bright
They should start hiring people qualified for on air jobs. It seems they’ve decided to go for cleavage instead of brains.
Alison Kosik, Brooke Baldwin. Both clueless and add nothing to the conversation.
Longtime producers where shocked at the Kosik hire. She replaced someone who actually knew what she was talking about.
Hopefully, CNN will do the right thing when her contract is up.
We’re all hoping so.
Back in the day (early 90s) CNN was about all facets of the News. Ted controlled it, and they had an environmental bureau, sci/tech, nutrition, travel, entertainment, and even the UN (something Ted loved.) None of these things made money but Ted felt they were important so CNN had them. It wasn’t about ratings as much as quality. The on-air talent were a lot of people who weren’t household names (with the possible exception of Bernard Shaw.) They made a lot of gaffes on-air – mainly technical – but it was raw and scrappy and a real team effort. Something like a college news broadcast but with a bigger budget. In short, CNN was watchable, even endearing.
Then Time-Warner bought CNN, and AOL (shudder) bought TW.
Now all those things are gone. It’s all about politics, speculation, politics, sensationalizing heinous crimes, politics, and fear-mongering. Its so far from The House that Ted Built that it isn’t recognizable anymore. There’s no going back to the Golden era, of course. No more possible than GM going back to making big steel honkers that got 8 mpg. But their rating have fallen, their ad revenue shrinking, and no matter what they try they cannot counter-program Bill O’Reilly. Allison Kosik is hot as hell and by god if sex sells, then sell it. The network certainly doesn’t have substance to offer.
I’m thinking CNN “jumped the shark” when the bug (something CNN invented, BTW) went from yellow to red.
They are just cutting fat. They are just cutting salaries. The company line is expressed only because they don’t want to say that they need to pay professionals much less for newsgathering.
Too many channels. Too little revenue. Quality journalism is becoming less and less available in our world. Infotainment has ruined us.