`Two for the price of one´-bi-media newsgathering for the 1990´s

In April 1997, the BBC grouped together all its news services (including the World Service) into a single entity-BBC News-so becoming the largest global news broadcaster. Part of this process has resulted in completely combining its radio and television news-gathering operations. Existing methods of getting the story back are no longer necessarily the most cost-effective way of news-gathering, and new techniques must be explored to provide `more for less´. BBC News is a truly global news-gatherer. There are only a handful of organisations that gather news around the globe using their own dedicated resources for a significant amount of its output, instead of relying mainly on agency material. The BBC therefore has to explore new methods and develop its own resources to fulfil this need. In this paper, existing methods of radio and television news-gathering are contrasted with some new techniques; in particular two examples of new resource provision are examined