Did somebody say work from McDonald’s?
The Arizona Republic is giving their reporters a laptop and letting them loose into the wild. Yesterday The Phoenix Business Journal reported that Arizona Republic editors told 20 of their journalist they can work from Starbucks or McDonald’s because they have free wi-fi.
Top Republic editors met with reporters from the Mesa, Scottsdale and Phoenix community sections Thursday to tell the reporters they were getting laptops. They would become “mobile reporters” without any traditional desk in an office, according to multiple reporters who wished to remain anonymous.
Sources say the Scottsdale office could close as soon as the first quarter of 2014.
I personally wouldn’t want to type an A1 story next to a McDonald’s playground, but I wouldn’t mind working in a coffee shop by the University. I’m sure they are going to miss working next to a bunch of bitter, sad journalist always talking about the “good old days” while huddling next to the police scanner.
Here’s to the future of journalism!
This article appears in Oct 3-9, 2013.
How the heck are the grizzled veterans going to bring up the young pups?
Here in Roanoke, Virginia, we’ve been having journalists work out of coffeeshops since 2008, and it’s been a great thing for us. I explain more here:
http://yanceymedia.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/arizona-republic-goes-mobile-and-you-should-too/
Hey…at least they still have a paycheck (right?) Talk to some radio people that got downsized out of a gig and now traffic reports for Tucson originate out of PHOENIX…..
Can’t they afford NetZero? I think if I had a job that depended on access to the internet, I would, at the very least, purchase my own service.
Maybe I’m just crazy.
Maybe I’m a Libra.
Welcome to Arizona beloved journalists, you now have the “right to work” out on the street. Of course, that is “at-will” of the restaurants that will allow you to loiter. Maybe Arizona’s empty labor standards will now shape our “future of journalism” as well.
More evidence that the world has gone mad
Goldwater Institute probably suggested it.
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear this was April 1st. :-/
I hope they at least know the difference between “journalist” and “journalists”.
Heck, those stenographers for those in power can work anywhere…
Let them eat cake…
That’ll make it easy to eavesdrop on their transmissions back to the paper and other communications while out investigating their stories.