INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM COLLABORATION-A GREAT PUBLIC EDUCATOR

Five years ago I attended a media think tank hosted by the management of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The guest speaker was Bill Keller who was then the executive editor of the New York Times, a position from which he stepped down in 2011 to return to becoming a full time writer for the Times.

The eruption of the financial crisis facing many papers across the nation was gaining full force at the time of Keller's talk. The Boston Globe, which was then owned by the Times (Now owned by a group of Red Sox principals)) was in particular financial stress as was the case at the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times and many smaller newspapers throughout the country. Draconian cutbacks were taking place in newspaper newsrooms, and those cutbacks and closings continue today.

During the Q&A following Keller's talk I asked if he felt a possible solution to maintaining strong print editorial departments was collaboration with television stations and local cable news channels in the local marketplace. Would the sharing of personnel allow for a bolstering of local news coverage and investigative reporting in both mediums?

Keller's response was close to an emphatic no! He cited the prodigious differences in print and broadcast journalism, particularly with the print emphasis on detailed coverage, investigative reporting and follow-up. The television comparison was referenced as personality driven, sound bites, police blotters, and little or no investigative work and in depth political coverage. Keller implied that it would be extremely difficult to make the reporting cultures in TV studios and newspaper newsrooms compatible. Keller was earnest in his feelings that the idea would not work, and he may well have been correct, the proof being that generally, the marketplace has not found the idea as a workable plan.

Moving the clock ahead to 2013 we have seen an enormous change in collaboration at both the national and local level. A local case in point was the excellent television collaborative reporting with journalists from The Boston Globe and Boston Herald providing excellent coverage on the Boston Marathon bombing.

Almost daily, New York Times reporters and columnists appear on the PBS News Hour, MSNBC and other cable channels offering reporting, analysis and opinion. The digital New York Times has in effect built their own television station with their reporters providing video clips of top stories from the days newspaper. The material in TV terminology is approaching, and in many cases reaching broadcast quality.

Though I know nothing of the financial arrangements in these collaborative efforts I suspect in most cases the broadcast TV appearances by print journalists are negotiated with the individuals, unless it is a promotional appearance.

The recent excellent New York Times five-part series by Andrea Elliott profiling Dasani, the homeless 11-year old living in the shadows of New York City raises in my mind the enormous potential benefit of this body of work being produced as a television documentary. The series has drawn great acclaim for the Times and Ms. Elliott and without question is deserving of high honor journalism recognition. Elliot's year of research has paid off in high visibility and public and political awareness of the condition of the homeless in New York. It is deserving of the additional mass national exposure that television could provide.

Without demeaning the journalistic commitment, impact and reach of the New York Times this story and others like it demand broader reach to help educate a mass audience as to this and many of the other critical issues facing the nation. A collaborative effort between network television and print journalism, in this case the Times, could produce a multi-part documentary that would raise the nation's awareness with a hopeful positive impact. Would it be difficult to translate the story to long form television? Yes. Would it be expensive to produce? Yes. However, the audiences generated by such a series could be explosive and lure major corporate sponsorship generating commercial benefit for the underwriters while educating a broad portion of the population that the reach of a single newspaper cannot accomplish.

The risk-reward formula for such an endeavor might not work for the television networks and the answer may lie with an independent production company. Could this type of print journalism and television collaboration be a winning formula for combinations with such entities as HBO, Showtime, Amazon, and Netflix or some form of NEWCO organized cooperatively for the sole purpose of producing such programming. This effort should not be limited by a focus only on public broadcasting.  Speaking of risk-reward, though vastly different content, NBC's three-hour live production of The Sound of Music last week reached 21-million viewers! So much for the naysayer!

Those in both the public and private space who are concerned with solutions to the big issues of the day including income inequality, the plight of the middle class, poverty, financial regulation, privacy, congressional grid-lock, war, need only to look to history to know that these issues can not be solved without a majority of the American public being aware of and becoming eager to support finding solutions. A collaborative print and broadcast media effort in the area of investigative journalism can lead to an information and education exchange for the greater good of the American people. It could also be good for ratings and business.

General Sarnoff, founder of RCA and the National Broadcasting Company believed that television could grow to become the country's great educator. In some cases it has but a greater collaboration of the best of both mediums could gain an enormous accomplishment for the greater good of our democracy. It all begins with the story.

Gordon Hastings

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Gordon@gordonhastings.com