‘We train our people to work across multiple platforms’

CONVERGENCE is not a buzzword in the government alone. Media organisations across the world too are attempting to integrate their operations aimed at better use of resources and greater productivity. BBC recently spoke of its plans of merging its radio, television and Internet operations. Prasar Bharati is also waiting to execute its synergy project.CNN, has been in the forefront in bringing convergence to its newsrooms worldwide.

CNN’s Hong Kong newsroom has journalists working across multi-platforms. This Turner Group company is upbeat about replicating the synergy effort in all its production facilities soon.

CNN Asia Pacific’s managing director Bruce Dover highlighted the various facets of convergence in CNN newsrooms worldwide in a talk with Nivedita Mookerji.

What is the primary objective behind the convergence drive at CNN?

There are great synergies between story-telling on the Web and broadcasting and television. Now we assess story ideas at an editorial conference and decide which is the best medium for that story, what resources should be dedicated to it. At CNN in Hong Kong, our journalists work cross-platform which has great advantages. This gives us more flexibility.

Is cost-cutting is one of the main criteria in this exercise?

Naturally, there are some benefits in having a more flexible team. We are now in a position to cover more stories than before, more efficiently. However, it does not mean we will compromise our coverage. If the story warrants it, we will still send out a Web and television journalist, as we did when the Olympic bid results were announced. We had one of our Hong Kong-based journalists in Beijing for a week up to the final announcement, filing stories for CNN.com/Asia and then our senior Asia correspondent Mike Chinoy went to Beijing to cover the story live for ‘Breaking News’ on television.

For the coverage of the Agra Summit, we had Mark Tully writing for CNN.com/Asia, while Satinder Bindra was covering for television in India.

The election in Timor was covered with a team from our Jakarta office working in conjunction with one of our Hong Kong-based journalists who assisted the TV production and filed stories for CNN.com\Asia.

Can a professional trained in TV be expected to deliver equally well in another medium? Isn’t CNN compromising on quality by integrating everything?

No, we are not compromising on quality, we are being more productive. We train our people to work across multiple platforms. We believe that everyone is capable of more than one skill and I’m pleased to say we’ve discovered some great potential in the team. We now have CNN’S correspondents in the region filing TV and Web packages every day.

Which other CNN centres will be emulating the Hong Kong experiment next?

The Hong Kong news centre is the first of its kind at CNN globally, integrating television and Web journalists. London and the international newsroom in Atlanta will be the next production centres to introduce integration.

Will CNN integrate its operations in every centre, including in India, gradually?

In India, we have a bureau in New Delhi and our bureau chief, Satinder Bindra writes for the Web and reports for television. And yes, we will be rolling out the integrated newsroom model across all CNN’s international production centres—London, New Mexico, New York and Atlanta. But this is not just co-location; this is about extending and developing people’s skills, and having the works of CNN journalists published on numerous platforms.