Why does a newspaper need a video camera?

When I started my career as a journalist, I used a typewriter. Everything in the newspaper was black and white. That includes the photographs, which were shot on film and needed to be developed.

That was back in the '80s, which didn't seem like so long ago. But considering the technological advances we've seen since then, it might as well have been the Bronze Age.

Well, here it is, the last few years of the first decade of the 21st century, and newspapers realize they'd better look past the "paper" part and start delivering the news to your computer along with your doorstep.



We at the Observer-Reporter (Washington, Pa.) have been working on multimedia projects for a couple of years now, learning as we go. Some of the early projects ... frankly, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. But you have to start somewhere.

Now that we have some much-improved equipment and (we hope) a better idea of what we're doing, we want to tell you more about our work and give you the opportunity to see and hear what we do.

The news certainly isn't black-and-white anymore.