For now, editing is a commodity and less a craft

fcp.co by Walter Biscardi

We shared some tweets with Walter about CNN's layoffs due to the fact they can get reports from viewers with high quality consumer cameras for nothing. He's followed it up with this excellent article.

We think Walter has expressed what a lot of editors have been thinking for a few years now, editing is now just a commodity. Many thanks to Walter for allowing us to reprint his article, we are sure it will spark off many good comments. Make sure you check out his excellent blog.

For now, editing is a commodity and less a craft

As has been reported recently, CNN laid off 50 staffers, primarily videographers and editors. Why? Essentially after a three year internal review, CNN has determined that professional editors are not necessary to craft news stories any longer. Instead they are expanding their iReport section allowing for more user generated content to be provided to the network, at absolutely zero cost to the network. Yep, zero cost to the network since these folks won’t be paid. I could go on about that part of the story, but Stephen Colbert explains it so well in this clip from “This Colbert Report” on Comedy Central. (Not available in Europe)

So we’re at the point in the evolution of Editing (and videography for that matter) from craft to commodity. As CNN says in their release, high quality video cameras and editing software are available to the masses, so they don’t need the professionals any longer. In the corporate production world, this move from professional to consumer / family friends has been happening for quite some time. “My son / cousin / nephew / daughter / friend has a video camera / computer and he/she can do the work for us now. Sorry, but smaller budgets you know.” read more...