By CORINNE Z. LYONS
The UNITY News

Freezes have been placed on hiring, people have been laid off or offered buyouts, and traveling budgets have been sliced.

Many financially-strapped media companies are being forced to find more ways to reduce their budgets, and foreign bureaus, once thought to be untouchable, are being considered as a way to cut costs.

“The trend has been to reduce international reporting and reduce resources,” says John Schidlovsky, director of the International Reporting Project. “It’s financial reasons because international bureaus are expensive.”

Several journalists are fearful the industry could lose sight of the valuable role played by international reporters. They are concerned about the direction in which the industry is headed and want to bring attention to the issue.

Mary Rajkumar of the Associated Press, Keith Richburg of The Washington Post, Ellen Weiss of National Public Radio and Pradnya Joshi of The New York Times are scheduled to discuss the issue at a panel session at 11 a.m. Friday in Room W178.

The panel was designed to provide insight into what readers find relevant in the world.

For many media outlets, continuing international reporting means using wire services or freelancers. Schidlovsky said IRP provides journalists with fellowships to go overseas for five weeks. That might not be the best option, but it is better than nothing, Schidlovsky said.

Richburg said international reporting “can, and must, continue despite cutbacks.” 

For the AP, it means training journalists in other countries, said Rajkumar, international projects editor.

“International reporting is more important than ever because what happens in other countries affects all of us,” Rajkumar said. “We see repeatedly with immigration, terrorism, the Iraq war, the economy and any number of other issues. It’s also just plain interesting.”

topic: Industry Issues
tags: budget cuts, buyouts, foreign bureaus, international reporting, layoffs

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Industry Issues, Print. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.