It is good to hear more about how you see the web conversion producers working with the broadcast colleagues. From your comment, it sounds like the BBC is not planning to simply repurpose content and instead considering throughout the production process how the content will work on different platforms.

It will be interesting to see how this works. Ideally the TV, radio and web journalists would work together from the start, to ensure the final result works well on all mediums.

There is an obvious need for a greater understanding among journalists about how to best tell stories across different platforms, as well as understanding of the different audiences on these platforms.

But, of course, “conversion” doesn’t just go in one direction. Our brilliant online experts – e.g. your former colleagues such as Darren Waters, Jonathan Amos and Richard Black – are all now broadcasting. But some of then inevitably need guidance in voice, writing style etc. The broadcast producers are therefore helping them to “convert” their text journalism into effective broadcast material. I see nothing flawed about that sort of conversion either.

Of course, it would be wonderful if all news organisations had available to them fully formed multimedia journalists who effortlessly produced content for all platforms. But we are all prisoners of our own inheritance. Achieving a multimedia nirvana will be difficult without people who can train, support and, yes, convert great content makers.

Peter