convergence lessons...

Last week I learned what I think is a common problem with convergence journalism. I would have posted about this last week, of course, but I foolishly screwed up my Blogger account and only now have been able to fix it. So brace yourself for some stale recollections!

Here's the problem: I don't think convergence respects print. We frequently do radio-only stories and video-only stories, but whenever someone pitches an idea for the Missourian, it's only acceptable if it's "Missourian-plus." Can't a good print story stand on its own once in a while?

Woodward and Bernstein in 7804's Friday morning pitching session:

W&B: well, professors, we've got a few leads that we think will help us bring down Nixon and a slew of top dogs at the white house. We're thinking it would be best as a newspaper piece.
Professors: Hmmm...sounds like a good idea. But can we maybe get some audio with that? What about a few pictures? It seems incomplete...

I know we usually do feature stories that lend themselves to more than just text, but still, I think we could do better to respect a good print story when we see one.