Over the last year we have posted often on the departure of on-air reporters from Fox 61 in Hartford. From time to time some have made known that they refused to continue working at the station when offered the opportunity to remain on staff as a multi-skilled journalist(MSJ), responsible for both shooting and reporting.
With the hires of two more MSJs last week, the station’s transition to an all MSJ staff is nearly complete. With the exception of features reporter Jimmy Altman, all other reporters on the Fox 61 staff are in the field on their own and do their own shooting. As a result, there are also fewer full time photographers on staff and fewer live shots on the station’s newscasts.
While some may lament the change, the transition at Fox 61 is probably a pre-cursor to changes coming to the industry generally. With viewers of over the air television dropping along with revenues, stations have no choice but to consider other – less expensive means of gathering and delivering news – if they choose to stay in the news business at all.
