Roger Parry: Retrain newspaper reporters for TV

Posted by Paul McNally on 4 March 2009 at 14:26
Tags: Journalism

Last week, Johnston Press chairman Roger Parry predicted a “huge reduction in numbers of local journalists” and suggested that papers should ask football fans to file their own match reports.

Today, Parry says local newspaper journalists will play an increasingly important role in the future - providing content for a broad range of media including TV.

In an interview with the Today programme this morning, Parry said TV’s gradual retrenchment from local and regional news could be “a tremendous opportunity” for newspaper journalists.

“We were used to the idea that we fed through into the nationals. Nowadays exactly that situation could occur with the BBC and ITV,” he said.

“If we retrain our local journalists to be fully competent on video and audio, they could become the base of that news pyramid for all the other organisations.”

Tags: Journalism