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Journalist’s Tradetry and in journalism schools, had yetto be coined, just as the World WideWeb had yet to spin itself over all of ourlives. But some of us, especially thoseof us in the AP and some other newsagencies, were already well acquaintedwith the challenges of juggling the demandsof several news media and withthe expectation of instant delivery ineach.A decade later, as the new mediabecome the big issue everywhere, fromWall Street trading floors to journalismschool lecture halls, some of us areasking ourselves—quietly, because weknow it could make us sound like oldcranks when we do it—what’s reallynew here?Certainly it is not the concept ofquick, almost constant updates. I’dbeen with the AP eight years, and overseasfor four, when I did that directfrom-the-bathbroadcast. AndI’d long been accustomedto thedifference betweenmy workand that of thenewspaper correspondents,whowould head offfor dinner or bed after filing their onestory of the day. I stayed at my desk ormy laptop until midnight doing updatesfor late editions of morning papers,and then filing a final “turn” ofthe story for early editions of afternoonpapers. Then, in the morning, I’d beback at it, “freshening” that story withthe day’s first events, and then again atnoon, and so on.This is standard procedure foragency reporters around the world and,of course, was long before even theadvent of CNN. In larger bureaus, suchas London, Moscow and Tokyo, a largestaff can divide the labor into shifts.They also can specialize to a degree, ineconomics reporting, say, or in sports.But in smaller bureaus, such as Hanoi,Abidjan, or Santiago, to name just afew, it’s up to one or two reporters tohandle it all of the time and to help outin all different kinds of media.Four years ago, the AP joined thenews video industry, adding yet anotherdimension to our jobs. Whileexperienced, professional televisioncamera operators and producers werehired and assigned around the world,the AP writers already in place had towork with them, sharing cars andplanes. AP correspondents had to start“thinking visually,” as well as in words,radio and still pictures. It was not unheardof for a writer to be asked, in areal pinch, to carry a high-8 camera andtake some video while on assignment,just as TV producers and still photographersare sometimes asked to providewritten stories when a writer isn’taround. (And they sometimes come upwith the day’s best stories.)At the AP, we’ve come to take thiscollaboration, and the “multitasking”it often requires of us, for granted. Iwas reminded that not everyone doesYet in the steady drone of panel discussions, opedcommentaries, journalism articles and soforth, it is remarkable how rarely any referenceto news agencies is made.when I read Kari Huus’s account, in theWinter 1998 Nieman Reports, of herwork as MSNBC’s correspondent inJakarta, Indonesia. Huus wrote: “Had Ibeen with a newspaper or magazinereporter, I would have been takingnotes and planning to go back to thehotel to write only when my weeklyand daily print deadline was upon me.Had I been working in television orradio, I would have been shooting witha particular news slot in mind. Butwriting for the Internet, making theusual editorial calls—when and howmuch to file—is more complicated.The medium’s strong suits—speed andversatility—mean the scope of choicesis enormous.”Agency journalists rarely find themselveswith all of the demands thatHuus did, simultaneously carrying avideo camera, still camera, recorderand notebook. But in many respectsthe new media world Huus found her-self in is the same old world for agencyjournalists. One proof of that assertionis found in the technology she describesusing to deliver her words andimages—digital cameras and recorders,which were largely developed for,and first put to use by, the news agencies.For years now we’ve also beentoting satellite telephones and otherhigh-tech gear used to transmit newsfrom the world’s most remote locations.Of course the Internet has its ownspecial qualities, including, as Huusaptly points out, a direct connection tothe public. The feedback, intense andimmediate, that she describes gettingfrom viewers and readers is somethingI never received in my years reportingfrom abroad. There was always a longtime lag as letters moved through theinternational mails. She is right to wonderabout the implicationsof an instantpublicresponse and thewhole concept of“interactive” news.Agency journalistsget feedback, but itusually comes firstfrom the editorswho monitor our services at newspapersand TV and radio stations. They’venever been shy about calling right awayto point out what they perceive as aproblem in the coverage—an error, ahole, a contradiction between oneagency’s story and another’s. Cardsand letters from the public come moreslowly, and less frequently, becausewe’re one step removed from it. Wereach the public only when our storiesare carried by a newspaper, TV or radiostation, so consequently those newsoutlets are the ones that often get theattention.When The Dallas Morning Newspublishes an AP story, or ABC-TV carriesit, the public is inclined to see thatstory as a product of The Dallas MorningNews, or ABC-TV, even if it carriesthat (AP) logo or, in the case of TV, if itis attributed to us. The lack of a directconnection is now starting to change,with the advent a couple of years ago of60 Nieman Reports / Fall 1999