There have been many rumors of an "exodus" from KRON, but 50 people have just finished being trained in this new language of journalism. The entire training process took about three weeks with one week of intensive training. It's just not feasible to take people away from the operation of the station much longer than that. "It's like changing the engines on a 747 crossing the Atlantic, but it's doable," says Michael Rosenblum, founder of DV Dojo , who trained the KRON staff using the VJ method.

I've had the opportunity to watch some of KRON's stories online . I could say the same of the many local broadcast stories I've watched over the years, some were impressive, others could have used a lot more work. The difference? KRON's VJ approach is one that is attempting to respond to the on-demand media habits of today's consumers and the economic realities facing local television broadcasters.

As an industry, we should not roundly reject the VJ model. It is a concept that needs to be seriously pursued. The most common arguments against VJs are address as follows:

Just a bottom-line solution. There's no denying that the VJ model dramatically reduces the cost of producing local broadcast journalism. However, to solely focus on VJs as a cost-cutting solution will undermined the concept from the start.

It should not be confused with "one-man bands," used for years by smaller markets and those stations focused on cutting costs. "I told our staff this was not a one-man band. I used Enya, the recording artist as an example. She does all her own stuff because the technology allows her to do it," notes Antonitis.

It's no secret that Young Broadcasting's stock price has seen better days. "We can't make money in this business like we use to, but we are spending it like we are. We need to start using our resources better. We can no longer have four people do the job that one can," explains Antonitis (once a photographer himself). Like it or not, good local journalism is contingent upon financially healthy broadcast operations.

I'm just as appalled as the next broadcaster when I see the astronomical profit margins required by Wall Street. For the long-term health of our industry some of those profits need to be reinvested. More specifically, investments need to be made in personnel, not in unnecessarily expensive equipment. For those who are quick to reject VJs, have you checked your company's stock price lately ? What's your management's strategy for future growth?

KRON's goal is to increase its content output. Instead of putting 8 to 10 cameras on the street, they now have 40 names on their assignment board every morning. Video journalism is an opportunity to create even more video content with more perspectives. The flexibility of the concept enables journalists to tell stories as they happen, rather than producing a package to be aired hours later after an event occurred.

Increasingly, local broadcasters will have to produce video content for multiple platforms: broadcast, web, cell phones, and video on demand. Once again, the VJ model is much better suited to distributing unique content to multiple platforms. "KRON is still wrapped in the show thing at this point, but this new path they are on lends itself to a nonlinear perspective. We are essentially producing video files. All these pieces are on a server. We are one step away from people at home accessing these video files," explains Rosenblum.

The existing broadcast model is limited to "repurposing" the same content across multiple distribution channels. Study after study has shown that growth for new distribution channels like the web or cell phones requires unique content, not content originally produced to meet the sensibilities of broadcasting. "You can't give the audience corn every day. You've got to give them a well-balanced diet," says Antonitis.

No collaboration. "We have more collaboration and excitement in our newsroom than I've seen in newsrooms in decades," states Antonitis. There are no more edit bays or cubicles at KRON. Everyone sits around a long table with their laptops.

The shift from working in a team as a reporter and photographer to working alone does change how "collaboration" is viewed. Collaboration will absolutely continue to be a critical part of the broadcast newsgathering process using VJs.

For example, if I were a news director, I would assign two or three VJs to cover the top story every day. These VJs could discuss their story development with each other. On so many occasions I personally witnessed the failure of photogs and reporters to communicate with each other about the direction of a story, often producing something more mediocre than it had to be. Using multiple VJs would enable each to focus on their own unique perspective of a story. The gathered video could be cut into one piece or produced as three separate pieces as part of the same story. In the end, a richer story-telling experience would be delivered.

New systems could also be put in place to involve your entire staff in a daily critique process or break them up into teams. Remember, in the on-demand world, not everyone will be rushing for a 6pm or 11pm deadline. Stories will be produced throughout the day.

Your community will also become an important collaborator. There are so many different ways for them to comment on your newsgathering process. We are human and make mistakes. Now we have even more people looking out after our work. We should be grateful citizens want to help us become even better journalists. It's time to check our egos at the door and grow thicker skin.

Rosenblum has a different take on collaboration, "Frankly I don't want collaboration from journalists, I want authorship. Every story will have it's own unique take, making television richer instead of filled with cookie-cutter content."

Creates "bad" journalism. "What broadcasters view as quality journalism is being roundly rejected by the audience. Especially in San Francisco. The ratings here are miniscule. We have to do something different," tells Antonitis.

People are responsible for bad journalism, not technology. Technology is simply a tool. Imagine this, instead of sending out your standard number of crews each day, double that and then some. Rather than being committed to putting a package on the air before it is even produced, there would be a far greater range of choices to pick from. "We now watch all of our stories before they go on the air, which is part and parcel of the VJ model. Most of the time we only saw stories when they hit air in the old system. It's like proof reading your newspaper on the newsstand," says Antonitis.

Conceivably the best stories will rise to the top. Because the costs have been dramatically cut, not every piece has to make air or could be used exclusively for the web. "I personally build in a 30% failure rate, so a third of the stories that come back won't hit air and it's OK. . . . In true journalism, sometimes a story works and sometimes it doesn't," explains Rosenblum.

The VJ model is similar to how newspapers are run. Lets face it, there is little original reporting done in broadcasting. Most of our stories are pulled from the morning paper or the wires. "We are going to establish a beat system in which the reporters have to come up with their own stories. This enables reporters to really work their sources. That's where original reporting comes from," says Antonitis.

This however could put broadcast reporters at a disadvantage, who are notorious for bouncing from market to market. (I completely understand their need to do so. I can't believe there are reporters who make as little as $15,000 in this country! That's why financial resources need to be shifted from overpriced technology to personnel.) Developing sources in your community takes time and commitment.

Of course, learning how to produce stories in this way will take time. "We have to begin telling stories in a way that there is a quality of content instead of just the quality of presentation," advises Antonitis. Then there are those of us seeking to be liberated from much of the sensationalist stories that have come to dominate broadcast journalism, thirsting for adventure to breathe some creativity back into our craft. "Everyone in the industry is focused on one thing, the process. What we are focusing on is how we use our resources in a way that allow people to be individuals and not cookie-cutter reporters, who look like Ken and Barbie," says Antonitis.

KRON Is Now 100% VJ. I'm not sure KRON's approach is right for every station. It is just one variation on the VJ model. Most stations probably won't convert their entire operation in one fell swoop like KRON did, but no doubt many will start adding on VJs to their staff. If your competitor puts five more cameras on the street using VJs, you'll be forced to do the same just to compete. It just makes sense from a journalism point of view, from the community's point of view, and from an economic point of view.

"People will judge our efforts within the first week. I told our staff it won't be until July 1 before this is instituted in a way that we understand the pluses and the minuses. We are inventing this. No one has done this before. We are trying to remake how we do news," explains Antonitis.

Is the VJ model perfect? No, but either is our decades-old broadcast system. It delivers content on a fixed schedule at a time when our viewers want to view content when it is convenient for them. It is also very expensive. I am just as saddened as the next journalist when some media companies are more concerned about profits than people. However, economic realities are forcing us all to rethink our craft as seen by the animated discussions in the TVSpy Watercooler .

Will some of us lose our jobs over the next decade? I think that depends on whether or not we choose to keep investing in fluff or journalism. There is actually an opportunity to increase staff sizes if we forgo fancy sets, $20,000 cameras, and readjust the value of the whole concept of anchors (particularly as audiences continue to fragment).

I don't know exactly what local broadcast operations will look like 10 years from now, but I do know they won't look like or be run like the local broadcast operations of today. I happen to believe VJs will be a critical part of broadcast journalism moving forward. If you are wholeheartedly are against the VJ model, start thinking of another alternative because holding onto the existing system isn't a viable strategy either. We can learn a whole lot more from KRON than from a station who opts for the status quo.

Join in the VJ debate now in the TVSpy Watercooler:

How Them VJ's Doing?

BBC VJ model

Improvements at KRON

VJ's coming to Sacramento? KOVR?

Agree or disagree? Share your thoughts in the Next Generation TV Watercooler

About the Author

Stephen Warley has made a career out of assessing the future direction of television, working at CBS News, CNBC, ThirdAge Media and most recently as General Manager of TVSpy . He completed his MBA at Fordham University with concentrations in media management and finance in 2004. Stephen is no longer writing Next Generation TV for TVSpy, but he continues to write on his Broadcast Web Ideas blog. You can email him at stephenwarley@gmail.com.