In today’s crowded media landscape, people have an infinite number of means to consume their news. For entertainment news alone, there is a vast array of choices. They can read celebrity magazines like People and US Weekly. They can follow celebrity Web sites like www.PerezHilton.com and www.TheSuperficial.com. Or they can watch one of several entertainment news programs on television: “E! News,” “TMZ,” “Entertainment Tonight,” “The Insider,” “Extra,” “Access Hollywood.” With so many choices, what would drive a viewer to watch “Access Hollywood” correspondent Maria Menounos over other celebrity reporters? Viewers who watch her said it’s because she’s a name they recognize. She’s a face they trust. And she has a personality they like. Menounos has attracted a broad and loyal audience and it is because she has successfully branded herself as the go-to source for celebrity news.

Branding started out as a marketing tool for companies who wanted to promote their consumer goods or services. Yet, as Rita Clifton wrote in her book “Brands and Branding,” “Now we are seeing the extension of branding techniques to almost every corner of commerce and society.” Branding techniques are now being utilized by individuals who wish to promote themselves, especially journalists. “Every organization has ‘consumers’ of some kind,” Clifton wrote. As for Menounos, her “consumers” are her television audience, mostly women in that sought-after 18-49 age range who follow celebrity and entertainment news. Menounos is able to capture that powerful demographic because of her ability to successfully brand herself.

Menounos’ secret to her brand success is her ability to create a broad awareness of herself. In his presentation “The Five B’s of Building Brand U.0,” David Armano said being ubiquitous is the most essential element to creating a successful brand. He said the key to branding is “creating multiple streams of you.” Not only is Menounos a correspondent for NBC’s “Access Hollywood,” “Nightly News with Brian Williams” and “The Today Show,” but she has also appeared in movies, television shows and commercials and she hosts various other programs. She also started her own production company, Omega Girl, runs the non-profit organization Take Action Hollywood, and she is set to release her first book this year. “I diversify my talents – acting, reporting, hosting and producing,” Menounous said.  “This gets me to reach more audiences.  Wrestling for the WWE one night and interviewing the Obama kids on another. This kind of diversification helps me create that broader awareness.”

When discussing successful branding, “Invisible Inkling” blogger Ryan Sholin said it’s important to “be everywhere…you need to show up like Beetlejuice when they say your name three times.” If you were to turn on the television, you’re likely to catch Menounos on an NBC news program, a Pantene ProV commercial, a rerun of “One Tree Hill” on the CW, a showing of “Tropic Thunder” on HBO, hosting “Hollywood Green” on the Planet Green Network, or hosting a “Real World Reunion” show on MTV. “I love a lot of things and have a lot of passion,” Menounos said. “Working in all those genres fulfills that love and those passions.  These endeavors also put me in so many other mediums and in front of different audiences which has no doubt helped my brand.”  

While Menounos has a huge presence on television, her online presence is not as strong. If you were to google her name, the first post is her Wikipedia listing, followed by her IMDB listing and an unofficial fan Web site. While she has a page on the “Access Hollywood” Web site for viewers to watch her content online, there is no central hub for Menounos’ body of work. This lack of online presence is preventing her brand from reaching its full potential. “The days when network television was a good proxy for all of America itself are gone,” Chris Anderson wrote in “The Long Tail.” “The sought-after demographics are increasingly online.”

Not only should Menounos create her own Web site for audiences to watch her work, she should also have a strong presence on social networking Web sites. According to Armano, another attribute of successful brand management is “effectively managing your social systems.”  Menounos has a Twitter account. However, she admitted she needs to increase her online presence. “I twitter often and that helps me,” Menounos said. “But honestly this is an area I must improve upon in the new year.  I don’t do Facebook or have my own Web site.  This is tantamount today and again I confess I haven’t pursued it as hard as I should.  They say 20 percent of viewers could be watching content online, a definite reason to utilize social media more.”

While her social media presence is limited, Menounos has successfully utilized Twitter to build her brand. She currently has more than 33,000 followers and tweets several times a day. Most importantly, Menounos uses Twitter to connect with her audiences. For example, when preparing to interview celebrities on the red carpet at the Academy Awards this year, she tweeted, “Hey guys-heading to hotel to get ready for oscars…will be tweeting about fashion!tell me who you guys like as they walk the carpet!” She also tweets each time she’s about to interview a celebrity so that her followers can tell her what questions they’d like her to ask. Menounos is able to build deeper relationships with her followers through Twitter, which is essential to her brand. “All these audiences need to be engaged by the brand for it to fulfill its potential,” Clifton said.

Not only do audiences need to be engaged, but they need to feel as if they can contribute to her content. “A new culture of active consumer participation in media has arisen,” wrote Andy Hobsbawm in “Brands and Branding.” “There is no question that armed with new tools and technologies, consumers are looking for more control, filtering and choice.” Menounos offers her followers an interactive experience and encourages feedback through Twitter. For example, she is taking part in a new “Access Hollywood” series titled Maria’s Madcap Adventures, and she asked her followers to come up with adventures for her to do: “Hey guys-if you have any ideas of what other crazy things I should tackle for my series-maria’s madcap adventures-send em along!” This constant engagement with her audience will only help Menounos’ brand expand.

She has also successfully used Twitter to share content. Joe Grimm, who wrote the post “Building Your Own Journalistic Career Brand,” said journalists must share their work in order to build a successful brand. Although Menounos doesn’t showcase her work on her own Web site, she shares links to many of her stories on her Twitter feed. She also uses the social media Web site to give audiences something extra. She often shares behind-the-scenes photos on Twitter and tweets about off-air conversations she has with celebrities. And on the “Access Hollywood” Web site, she often posts behind-the-scenes Flip videos she takes herself. Offering audiences these exclusives is an important part of building a brand according to Armano, who said journalists must “be interesting: write, photograph, share, give.”

Another attribute Armano said is essential to branding is to “be remarkable: do something worthy of remark.” Menounos has successfully used her brand to be remarkable. She founded Take Action Hollywood, a non-profit organization that utilizes the power of the entertainment industry to educate, empower and raise social awareness. She also helped create the CosmoGIRL! Cup Contest, a competition to inspire girls to come up with innovative ideas and make positive changes in their communities. Menounos has also worked with congressmen and lobbyists to promote awareness of diabetes prevention as an ambassador for the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s Diabetes Awareness campaign. Clifton said one of the guidelines for good brand management is a “sense of social responsibility.” Menounos has effectively utilized her brand to promote awareness of social issues and to encourage others to contribute positively to society. “I am constantly pitching stories to my bosses at NBC that raise awareness on issues and try to volunteer my name and time to things I believe in when I can,” Menounos said. “My end goal is to be out of the business and either running an animal sanctuary or an orphanage in South Africa.  However, I know my brand can only get me there sooner and help me to make the biggest impact possible.” Through her charitable work, Menounos has successfully used her brand to make an impact.

Armano’s final key to successful brand management is to “be yourself: let your personality shine through.” Viewers said Menounos’ bubbly personality and infectious laugh are the reasons they love to watch her. “She’s adorable,” said Natasha Beck. “I love her clothes, hair and makeup. And she’s just fun to watch.” According to her IMDB biography, Menounos’ trademark is her laugh, “self-described as a cross between Fran Drescher and Woody Woodpecker.” In today’s world, it’s essential that the persona you create onscreen matches the one off-screen. If not, any off-hand remark you make or swear word you say could become an instant viral hit on YouTube. “These days you cannot control, censor or cancel out the information you don’t want people to have,” Hobsbawm said. “It is a time of total transparency, everything that can be known about a brand will be.” Journalists must not only let their personality shine through, but they must make sure that personality is reality. “There is NO difference,” Menounos said. “What you see is what you get. I’ve always felt that I need to allow my heart to guide me and I do in 99 percent of my career decisions. I only endorse, perform or work at things I’m passionate and believe in. I’m a terrible liar and always have been. Therefore, the only persona I could relay is my own.”

Menounos has all of the attributes of a successful brand and has effectively set herself apart from other celebrity reporters. She said her brand has helped her to accomplish many of her reporting goals. “If you want more freedom from news bosses then having a brand will help you to be more independent.” She has been able to report on stories close to her heart, including diabetes awareness and immigration issues, because of her brand. However, Menounos added that being such a well-known brand sometimes negatively affects her work. “You can still do the news and do a good job without a brand,” Menounos said. “Sometimes being a brand detracts because audiences can’t separate your brand from the news you’re reporting.” After interviewing John McCain’s daughter Meghan for “Nightly News with Brian Williams” in 2008, Menounos posted a blog about the experience and the first comment on the blog was from a woman named Monica in Los Angeles. Monica wrote, “Is this a reporter for Access Hollywood? What is she doing reporting on NBC news? This is awful.” Michelle Levinson, who often watches “Nightly News with Brian Williams,” said she thinks twice when she sees Menounos on the program. “It’s difficult to watch the same person you see in shampoo commercials deliver your news.” Menounos has been so successful branding herself as a celebrity news reporter that when she files stories as a hard news reporter, some viewers find it difficult to take her seriously.

Despite some negative effects, overall Maria Menounos’ brand is incredibly successful and one aspiring entertainment news reporters should try to replicate. Her path to fame was unorthodox. Menounos, a teen beauty pageant winner, got a job with “Channel One News” after graduating from Emerson College. “Channel One News” is a short-format news program sent to high schools across the nation. Menounos worked as an anchor and international correspondent for the program before being hired by “Entertainment Tonight” in 2002. A few years later she joined rival program “Access Hollywood” and soon began working as a correspondent for other NBC News programs as well. Journalists hoping to follow in Menounos’ footsteps should also consider more unorthodox paths to success. The internet is increasingly where audiences get their news, so aspiring celebrity reporters should think about working for an entertainment news Web site, producing videos and other celebrity news content online. They should also build a strong online presence early in their career. In today’s media landscape, all journalists should have a personal Web site with a portfolio of their work so audiences can access their content online. They should also follow Armano’s advice and effectively manage their social streams through Twitter, Facebook and other social media Web sites and share their work on Web sites like YouTube, Vimeo and Flickr. If aspiring entertainment news reporters replicated how Menounos built her brand, but concentrated more on building a strong online presence, they too could achieve brand success.

“The digital age makes our business more competitive than ever before. It also presents us with opportunities we couldn’t have imagined to gather, produce, and distribute the news. We can have great success in the new world – but only if we embrace what is new, rather than being overwhelmed by it.” – ABC News President David Westin, in a memo to staff

When David Westin announced plans to cut a quarter of the ABC News staff two weeks ago, his memo to the company may as well have been a memo to the entire broadcast industry. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/abc-news-president-david-westin-promises-that-cuts-will-not-impede-firstrate-journalism.html) Westin’s proposal for the future of the ABC News division is not unique. It’s where cable stations have already headed and where other network and local stations are going to head. “Long term, it’s going to get harder for these guys to exist as they are currently constructed,” an industry analyst told the New York Times. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/business/media/01network.html?8dpc=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1267459551-Oshhqvz9uRt07mHbe7sTXw)

In a nearly 1000 word memo, one thing was clear: less people are going to be expected to do more. “Overall, we will eliminate redundancies wherever possible.” Rather than having a camera crew, a producer, an editor and a reporter put together a 1:30 package for the network newscast, those responsibilities will now lie solely with the reporter. In order to accomplish this, Westin said there will be “extensive training in new technology.”

I interned for NBC Nightly News in 2007 and even then the industry was already shifting in that direction. When I began interning there, the staff had just come off a first round of layoffs. Producers and desk assistants were already being trained to edit using Avid Newscutter. Soon after I left, they hired their first digital correspondent Mara Schiavocampo, who shoots and edits her own stories. Schiavocampo led the trend. Westin says ABC News will now “dramatically expand our use of digital journalists.”

What ABC News is doing now to its domestic news division is similar to what the networks have already done to their bureaus abroad. In the last few years, the cost of running full size bureaus abroad ran too high and the networks were forced to shut down most bureaus and rely on one-man-band reporters for their foreign coverage. In a 2007 article, the Washington Post wrote:

“In the 1980s, American TV networks each maintained about 15 foreign bureaus; today they have six or fewer. ABC has shut down its offices in Moscow, Paris and Tokyo; NBC closed bureaus in Beijing, Cairo and Johannesburg. Aside from a one-person ABC bureau in Nairobi, there are no network bureaus left at all in Africa, India or South America.” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/16/AR2007021601713.html)

While most within the industry viewed this memo as an obituary for traditional newsgathering and a grim forecast of what’s to come, I view it with optimism. At Medill, I have been trained to shoot, edit, write and produce my own stories. I am a one-woman-band reporter. ABC News is hoping to train whatever staff is left in skills that I already have.

“When we are finished, many job descriptions will be different, different skill sets may be required, and, yes, we will likely have substantially fewer people on staff at ABC News.”

A frightening thought to those within the industry, but a beacon of hope for me and my peers preparing to enter the industry.

The Global Post is an online-based international news agency that launched in the summer of 2009. While users can access the site for free, they must pay $49.99 a year for a “Passport” membership. Passport offers access to Global Post correspondents and allows the reader to be part of the story development process. Besides gaining access to conference calls and meetings with reporters, subscribers also get exclusive reports on business topics and breaking news email alerts. Here is my interview with James Bandera, the Sales VP at Global Post. While the site has not been as successful as he had hoped, Bandera says they have found a way to attach value to their content. A model other sites can easily replicate.   

Why should readers subscribe to Passport?

“We have to provide something that they can’t get unless they pay for it. With our site, they are paying for a more interactive experience. Passport subscribers can recommend stories, vote on it. Were trying to find a model that people will be willing to pay for, not just the PBS-model ‘please support us,’ people want to get something. Everybody wants to be engaged with anything they are involved in. You can’t engage with the New York Times. You read it. We’re trying to create more of an experience.”

Some advertisers are hesitant to post their ads on subscription sites because they feel pay walls limit the scope and reach of readers who view their ads. What do you say to advertisers who are apprehensive about putting their ads on your site?

“Folks who are willing to pay are more involved in the content. They are more engaged. People who get to a website, sign into the content and pay for it are much better than people who read the article and go. They might not be all that interested in the content of the site, whereas if you are paying for it, you have an interest in that content. That’s why people advertise on shows, the audience is engaged in that show and they pay for it through cable. Advertisers now are heavily involved online with engaging an audience. Very few websites will be able to survive without some type of engagement with their audience. If you are looking for a large audience, go through Yahoo and Google. If you want someone engaged in your product, smaller sites likes ours work. Our job is to make the advertising work, and that’s through engagement.”

Has the Passport subscription model been successful?

“It is working, but we’re changing it almost quarterly. It’s not where we had hoped it would be. People aren’t quite ready to pay for news yet. We are more cutting edge then we want to be, but we had hoped we’d be in better shape.”

With last month’s announcement that the New York Times will begin charging frequent readers to access their site, there has been a lot of discussion about the costs and benefits of pay walls. Critics say news sites that charge readers to view their content will lose the majority of their audience, who will seek the same content elsewhere for free. Supporters say news sites must find a way to attach value to their content and extract revenue from their readers in order to survive. I spoke with representatives from GlobalPost.com and ArkansasOnline.com, both sites that have already made the jump to subscription models. I asked each of them about the benefits of putting up a pay wall and whether those rewards outweigh the inevitable risks.  

 ArkansasOnline.com, the website for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, has about 3,500 online subscribers that pay $4.95/month or $59/year to access their site. While that alone is not a substantial boost to revenue, the publication said using a pay wall helped protect their print circulation. Here is my interview with David Brown, the Sales Manager at the publication.

Why did the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette decide to put up a pay wall on their site?

“When newspapers first introduced their models online, they cannibalized their print product. They put the same thing from the newspaper online. And people said, ‘I don’t have to buy the paper. I don’t have to do this. I can get it for free.’ When you start out online and give your product away, then it’s difficult to say we’ve changed our mind. That’s the problem most papers incurred. The risk is if you give your product away, you cannibalize the hard copy paper. That’s why most newspapers have the problem they do today. People say, ‘I’ll get it online.’ Publishers let it happen for years and years, and all of a sudden they wake up and say its’ worth something. If you cannibalize your paper, it’s going to go out of business. Why are you giving away the same thing online that you are charging for in print? The online site should be used for late breaking news and information and should promote what’s in paper, and the paper should promote the website, but never should the two meet.”

Why should a reader subscribe to your site? What content do you offer that readers can’t get anywhere else?

“We do interactive programs. We’re getting ready to do the “You Pick Them” NCAA brackets. The winners get tickets to the Final Four games. We have niche sites: We have WholeHogSports.com, that’s Arkansas Razorbacks sports coverage all day every day. And that’s a niche market advertisers want to target. ARPreps.com gives each high school their own site page where kids can upload videos of themselves playing sports, they can blog, there is facebook through there. We have LittleRockMamas.com for mothers. We have 501pets.com for pet lovers. We had over 1 million page views in first day for our Top Dogs contest, it was basically the American idol for Arkansas dogs. It’s interactivity, that’s what they are paying for.”

How successful is your pay model?

“It is effective. In January 2009 we had 4.7 million page views. In January 2010, we had 6. 35 million page views. We had 318,982 unique visitors in January 2009. In January 2010, we had 533,842 unique visitors. If the pay model isn’t working, then why the jump?”

What do you say to advertisers who are hesitant to put their ads up on a site with a pay wall?

“We have more and more people everyday coming to us. Advertisers like it because with a free website, maybe they get traffic, maybe they don’t versus ours. With us, the proof is in the pudding. I can show my advertisers our growth. Advertisers want to get their message out in front of this large audience and this is a way to accommodate it. We send out email news blasts twice a day, advertisers sponsor those, and 130,000-140,000 people get those emails. And all they have to do is look at the majority of models that are paid. They are going to find the larger advertisers, McDonalds, Chevrolet, people who know what works, are doing it. I’m giving them a guaranteed audience. The newspaper is the best promotional vehicle available to promote the website, and the Democrat Gazette is the biggest newspaper in the state and penetrates all 75 counties of the state.”

What’s the benefit advertisers get from working with a paid-content site?

“The advertiser can come in and say, ‘here are the zip codes I’m interested in sending my information to.’ We show them how many subscribers we have in those zones. We can geo-target markets. I also use surveys online, including questions about what type of advertising readers are interested in. From those surveys, I can identify a market. I can come to an advertiser and say, ‘I have this many names of readers who have asked to receive information on tires twice per year, you can buy the list from me or I can design the ad and email it directly to your target market.’”

In 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt coined the term “bully pulpit” when discussing how the White House was a terrific platform from which he could advocate his agenda.

But flash forward a century and Roosevelt would probably be better off preaching his message through an even stronger bully pulpit: cable news.

When discussing the slew of political hopefuls working as analysts on FOX News Channel and MSNBC, the New York Times wrote:

“To viewers, it seems to be an endless televised political campaign, with former, and possibly future, politicians biding their time giving sound-bite versions of stump speeches.”

(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/business/media/15candidate.html)

For FOX News analysts Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich, the cable news channel is the most powerful campaign tool they have. All three have been mentioned as possible 2012 presidential contenders, and they can now spend the next two years preaching from an electronic bully pulpit.

“It makes sense for candidates to seek out positions in niche cable, because it is a direct pipeline to voters,” Jonathan Wald, a former senior vice president at CNBC, told the New York Times.

As more and more political hopefuls use cable news as the medium through which they spread their message, I’m wondering when (or even scarier, if) viewers will catch on that the “news” they watch is not news at all. Rather, it is the most deceitful form of blatant political advertising. It is unrestricted advertising masked as news analysis.

A study released last fall demonstrates the frightening effect slanted news messages can have on voters. The report was titled “Time Bomb? The Dynamic Effect of News and Symbols on the Political Identity of European Citizens.” And while it was geared towards Europeans, there is no doubt the same effects would happen in the U.S. (http://cps.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0010414009332465v1)

Researchers at the London School of Economics fed a steady diet of slanted newsletters about the European Union, either all good news or all bad, to 1200 citizens of six countries over two years. Over time, the study found that without exception the readers subconsciously adopted the bias to varying degrees and changed their view of the EU. However, the participants didn’t register any change until a full six months after the newsletters stopped.

This study clearly illustrates the power slanted cable news analysis can have on voters. And as more and more political contenders get hired as analysts, I say these cable channels stop calling themselves news channels and start calling themselves campaign channels.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs joined Twitter this weekend, capturing more than 6,200 followers within hours of his first official tweet. (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/14/technology/AP-US-White-House-Spokesman-Twitter.html?_r=1) This venture into social media comes only weeks after President Barack Obama did his first YouTube interview – answering questions submitted by users following his State of the Union address. (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/01/obama-answers-questions-from-public-in-youtube-interview/?fbid=6wZy-7yohl8) With Twitter, YouTube, and other social media sites, the White House is now able to directly connect with the people of America. But is this venture into social media a way to circumvent the press core in between?

If Americans can now direct message the White House Press Secretary and post video questions for the President, then what role does a White House correspondent fulfill? If citizens themselves can ask questions of political leaders, then why have Helen Thomas in the front row playing the intermediary?

Steve Grove, YouTube’s News and Political director, told PBS that providing a direct dialogue between the White House and Americans allows for “questions and ideas you wouldn’t see in a traditional format.” (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/02/obama-on-youtube-the-new-fireside-chat.html)

According to YouTube, 55,340 people asked 11,695 questions for Obama’s interview. Voters then cast 643,507 votes to determine the top questions. The top foreign policy question: Not Afghanistan or Iraq, which reporters constantly ask the President about. Instead, Americans wanted to know about Sudan, an issue not even addressed in the President’s State of the Union speech. The fact that Americans’ number one foreign policy concern was an issue not even on the radar of White House correspondents shows that reporters are clearly not in touch with what Americans want to know.

During the YouTube interview, some users even pitched ideas to the President, including one who said he should consider privatizing the Post Office. Never in a traditional press conference have reporters pitched ideas like that.

The YouTube interview also broke ground in using old clips of the President to call him out for his failure to keep certain promises. One user showed a clip of the President last year promising health care reform would be passed within the year, and then asked why he’s failed to do so thus far. Grove said the interview made good use of fact-checking the President.

The President said he is willing to participate in YouTube interviews in the future and the site is also trying to get other political leaders to follow suit. When asked whether these YouTube interviews would eliminate the need for White House correspondents, Grove said journalists still play a key role because they know the issues well and can ask tough, probing questions. But, he added using social media like YouTube “represents the way our political leaders can easily and efficiently connect with people across the country.”

I agree there is still a need for journalists to be the watchdogs of government. But if citizens can also act as watchdogs, correspondents covering the White House are going to need to step up their game. They need to ask tougher questions. Better questions. Pose ideas. Cover issues outside the radar of mainstream media. Fact check. Because if they don’t, I fear the role of the White House correspondent will cease to exist in the future.

Advances in technology have for the most part hurt traditional news media. Yet, new technology may be the key to restoring newspapers and magazines to their former glory. Augmented reality – technology that overlays virtual data onto the real world – may be the key to bringing readers back.

In their December issue, Esquire magazine became the first U.S. magazine to use augmented reality.  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGwHQwgBzSI) Readers point the cover at a webcam and watch on their computer screen as Robert Downey Jr. comes to life. While it was an expensive issue to produce, the industry immediately took notice and started thinking of other ways news media could use augmented reality.

This week, a writer from Online Journalism blog listed several ways news media could benefit from investing in AR. (http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2010/02/03/augmenting-reality-through-journalism/) AR could revolutionize the way news outlets report live events. Imagine if on election day you could aim your smart phone at your local polling center and have data about voting results appear directly in front of your eyes. Or if at the upcoming Winter Olympics, you could point your smart phone at a venue and get information about what events are playing there.

“Similar to the superimposed first-down line on NFL football fields, which has often been used to describe how augmented reality can overlay virtual information on real objects, stats about the distance of a quarterback’s pass, the speed of a tennis player’s serve, exit poll results on election days, or data released at international summits can be virtually generated so people can view them on their smartphones even as the event transpires.”

AR could also be used to help news outlets provide hyper-local content. What if you could point your smart phone at a location of interest and, through a news app on your phone, generate a digital screen of the latest news from that region?

Not only could augmented reality be applied to news, but it could be a boon for advertisers as well. The Online Journalism Blog claims augmented reality could be used to help companies provide targeted advertising. “In a simple case, only users interested in purchasing that BMW would hold up the print ad in front of their computer screens to generate a virtual car that shows off all its features.”

Augmented reality has already been seen in the fantasy world of Harry Potter, where articles on the front page of the Daily Prophet would come alive. And with this new technology, a fantasy newspaper may just become reality.

I leave you with a quote from a writer from InventorSpot.com, who seems to have complete faith in Augmented Reality and its potential to transform news media. And I sure hope he’s right.

“So, for those journalism majors in college right now who think they may have made the wrong decision in selecting this field of study, think again. The brave new world of augmented reality is going to make your profession one of the most enviable and sought-after career choices in this next decade.” (http://inventorspot.com/articles/augmented_reality_could_transform_legacy_newspapers_new_media_36445)

This past week, many friends have sent me links to a Youtube video mocking the news industry: Charlie Brooker’s “How to Report the News.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtGSXMuWMR4)

The video mocks the generic nature of a traditional news report – the “lackluster establishing shots,” “the obligatory shot of overweight people with their faces subtly framed out,” and “lazy and pointless” sound bites. While the video was definitely funny, it made me realize that audiences are fed up with the traditional delivery of news. They can see right through these generic packages and pay no attention to stories done in the same format night after night. The jig is up.

Not only have audiences grown tired of the generic news story, they’re also sick of the generic news anchor.

Ernie Anastos, a longtime New York news anchor was profiled in the New York Times this week. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/nyregion/31ernie.html?pagewanted=1&ref=media). Yet, the story seemed less like a profile and more like an obituary for the dying breed of the traditional local news anchor.

“In an industry that has morphed from ‘And that’s the way it is’ to something more like ‘Oh no he didn’t!,’ Mr. Anastos retains a gray formality behind the ever-sleeker anchor desks, a tone of gravity laced with warmth and aw-shucks one-liners.”

The pithy one-liners are no longer funny, that quick switch of emotion from the crime story to the light-hearted kicker is no longer believable, and even the voice is no longer trusted, but mocked.

“There are other anchormen who read the news in their “I’m reading the news” voice. That is Mr. Anastos’s voice,” wrote the reporter.

If they watch television news at all, young people are watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report – whose formats are based on mocking the traditional newscast. The only time young people are likely to catch a local news segment is after it makes its way to Youtube, which is how Anastos found himself being profiled by the New York Times.

 “While bantering with the weatherman during the 10 o’clock news, Mr. Anastos said, “Keep plucking that chicken,” except the verb sounded an awful lot like an obscenity.”

The on-air flub became a viral hit.

As a journalism grad student, I am learning how to perfect the traditional format of a minute and 30 second news story. But when I graduate and enter the industry, news stations will be looking for something different, something new. If we continue to pump out the same type of story night after night, our audiences will tune out. If every anchor on television has the same voice and mannerisms, audiences will tune out. We need to tell stories in a manner and medium that audiences haven’t seen before. We need to act like ourselves, not like how we think reporters should act. And if we offer something new and not generic, then maybe we will no longer be the butt of the joke.

In a world where everyone has video recording devices on their phone, the flip or a personal camcorder, it’s growing harder to distinguish the real reporters from citizen journalists. Now, anyone who is in the right place at the right time can post videos to YouTube or send them in to CNN’s iReport. With so many “journalists” out there, how can the traditional television correspondent set themselves apart? The answer: special expertise.

An article from last week’s Washington Post discussed the “Gupta effect” and how the twin roles of doctor and journalist are being played out in network coverage of Haiti. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/19/AR2010011904293.html)

While in Haiti, CNN’s medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta (a practicing neurosurgeon) has not only been reporting, but also operating on quake victims. Seeing Gupta’s rising popularity over the last few years, the three main networks followed suit and hired practicing doctors as medical correspondents, all of whom are also in Haiti. NBC’s Nancy Snyderman has been splinting broken bones, while ABC’s Richard Besser helped deliver a baby and CBS’s Jennifer Ashton helped treat a girl with an amputated arm. This trend of hiring correspondents with expertise will only grow as citizen journalists continue to threaten the industry.

And this trend is not only seen on a network level, but at local stations as well. The NBC affiliate that I worked for in Topeka, Kansas had recently hired a political science professor from a local university to work as a political analyst. He came on set during local elections to help analyze the results and also started working as a field reporter for relevant political stories. When I was sent out to cover the state’s Democratic party convention, it was the political analyst who reported live from inside the banquet hall, while I put together the package for later broadcasts.

In the age of the internet, there are so many bloggers acting as journalists that viewers are starting to question a reporter’s credibility. There are also so many news outlets to choose from, that local television news viewership is dropping. People don’t want to wait until 6 p.m. to get their news. Instead, they go online.

Television reporters will regain credibility and set themselves apart from other journalists if they have a field of expertise that they specialize in. Legal correspondents and medical correspondents are nothing new, but I predict we will see more of that with all beat reporters. Networks will start hiring reporters who have a background in another field, not reporters who only have experience in television news. Those years spent in television news mean nothing if someone with a flip and a laptop can put out a similar product. What will set reporters apart is if they have years of experience in the field they are now reporting on.