Reporting is king, all the rest is merely packaging

“The quality of the journalism we receive is only as good as the
number of boots we have on the ground, worldwide, at every level,” writes Larry Cornies, journalism professor and former editor of The London Free Press in a recent column.

Cornies runs through the various layoffs and cutbacks that have hit the media business recently and concludes that while “it’s very much in keeping with history that news outlets adapt to new
technologies and delivery platforms…as
more readers, listeners and viewers expect to get their “news” for
“free,” the depth of the reportage we get is declining.”

What about all the exciting new online initiatives being pushed at various news organizations?

Cornies wrote:

“News websites can adorn their pages with videos, slide shows, blogs
and myriad forms of interactivity, but they’re no better than the
quality of the journalism they begin with.

Reporting is king. All the rest is merely packaging,
technological enhancement, or what Salon.com writer David Weinberger
calls a culturally deafening ‘echo chamber.'”