Convergence Revolution

Convergence is robust and happening in cities big and small. In Denver, reporters from the city's two major dailies appear on television. The University of Missouri’s morning daily, the Columbia, Missourian has a new service revolutionizing how people get their paper. It’s site reads: 'eMprint (Electronic Media Print) is a new hybrid digital publishing platform that merges the familiar qualities of a printed newspaper with the interactive features of the Web in a magazine-like format.'

The service is one of many new technologies being rolled out to generate interest – while newspaper circulations plummet. Convergence isn't coming. It's here. Longtime-Georgia-broadcaster-turned-blogging-media-critic Dick McMichael is exploring the topic. He even suggests a book might be in order. It could be a hot seller. Outside of college texts, it is uncharted territory, probably because changes are so rapid, no one’s writing about it in-depth for fear their book will be outdated soon after a printing run. The trend is so encompassing the University of Missouri has added it as a sequence, right alongside its three historic sequences of broadcasting, print and advertisting. In a sign of the times, Yahoo! even recruited former NBC war correspondent Kevin Sites for a feature known as Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone. He now files his reports online.

The trend will undoubtedly continue and we'll follow the big developments here.