CBS News Leaps Headlong into 1994!!!

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OK. Let’s not go TOO fast here….

CBS News announced today with great excitement that they had hired a real, live ‘VIDEOJOURNALIST’ to report for them!!!! On TV no less.

The network took this radical, almost revolutionary step, putting them clearly on the cutting edge of broadcast journalism…..ca, 1994 or so.

Here’s the press release:

CBS News executives announced that they have hired Mandy Clark, a former video journalist for Voice of America News, as the network’s digital journalist to be stationed in Afghanistan.
Stationing a nimble, digital journalist–or so-called one-man band–in Afghanistan will no doubt help the network better cover the region in the months ahead.
At the same time, the move provides further evidence that the broadcast news divisions are undergoing a major shift in how they cover news overseas. Out: large, permanent bureaus. In: digital journalists armed with laptops and small cameras, who can report, shoot and edit their own video, while moving in and….     
You get the idea.
Of course, we trained and fielded 165 VJs for The Voice of America way back in 1994.  That one of them has progressed al the way to CBS News is a real achievement for her, but for CBS News… simply  bit sad and pathetic.
We also trained and fielded 750 VJs for The BBC way back in 2001, so it’s not like a major network hasn’t already done this one as well.
In fact (hey, pay attention here Les Moonves), we’ve got all-VJ hyperlocal stations in DC and Long Island for our partnership with Verizon. The idea of sending out one reporter with a small digital camera and a laptop isn’t exactly news… except it seems for CBS, which says volumes about the network and the state of television news in general.



Michael Rosenblum

For more than 35 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.

9 Comments
  • Michael Rosenblum July 31, 2009

    I have no frustrations with CBS at all. I had a great time while I was there. Working for people like Shad Northshield and Charles Kuralt I learned a ton. But I could also see that there was not much future for me there. I am not so sanguine as you about the odds for the survival of CBS. CBS network, maybe. CBS News, I am not so sure.

  • Michael Rosenblum July 30, 2009

    Actually just reconstituted itself as Travel Channel Academy. Once I got rid of the bricks and mortar turned out to be a very profitable business. Maybe CBS News should do the same?

    • $ July 31, 2009

      That was exactly the back door route my comment was intended to make.

      CBS is still alive and well.

      Making much more money and employing many more people than the travel channel.

      Seems to me you’re trying to narrow your view as much as possible to justify your frustrations with a previous employer.

      Besides those frustrations of yours, CBS is doing what many other big broadcasting companies are doing.

      Transitioning and adapting.

      No, not all will be able to do it but CBS, FOX and a few others are doing just fine, while others, like NBC, are on life support.

  • Michael Rosenblum July 30, 2009

    Are you still driving that Oldsmobile…oops, they went out of business.
    I meant Pontiac….oops….
    I meant Rambler…..oops…
    I meant CBS News….oops….

    so it goes.

    • $ July 30, 2009

      I meant DV Dojo….OOPS they went out of business!

  • pencilgod July 29, 2009

    Flying jet cars have been the future of personal transport for 50 years… where is mine?

  • Peter Ralph July 29, 2009

    CNN was filing stories shot on Sony TR101 handicams during the first Gulf War in 1990. Videojournalists have been a feature of the media landscape for 20 years. But ask any person in the street to name their favorite videojournalist.

    If CBS can change “Huh?” to “Mandy Clark”, they will certainly get everyone to sit up and listen.

    Agreed?

  • $ July 29, 2009

    Am I reading this right?

    You are making fun of a company, calling them “pathetic” for doing what you have been promoting for so many years?

    I didn’t realize you had a specific window of opportunity in time for them to make this change acceptable to you! 😉

    • Michael Rosenblum July 29, 2009

      You’re right.
      I commend them! I also hear they are putting telegraph terminals in their bureaus. Well done!!!