In the converged media organizations of the future, the journalists who best understand the unique capabilities of multiple media will be the ones who are most successful, drive the greatest innovations, and become the leaders of tomorrow, (Kawamoto, 2003: 72)
Therefore it is important for journalists to understand what convergence within the media is and how it
affects journalism. Kawamoto describes convergence as the melding or blurring of historically discrete technologies and services. (Kawamoto, 2003: 4) Convergence is occurring on many levels. Convergence within content, within the newsroom, within the way news is disseminated and within the way information is collected.
A good example of where convergence within journalism has been successful is Media General in Tampa. The company combined three of its branches newspaper Tampa Tribune, television station WFLA-TV and web site TBO.com- into the one building. The television and news staff still operates independently but share resources and communicate with one another. The branches all cross promote each other, the website has its choice of content from both the news and television branches and reporters from the tribune are often interviewed by the television station for its newscasts (Thelen, 2002: 98).Different journalists mean different things when they talk about convergence. But generally, convergence takes three forms.
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