ABC campus bureau up and running

AUSTIN, Texas — Is it an attempt to mine cheap labor, selflessly nurture future journalists or lure young viewers who long ago fled network TV news for cable and the Internet?

ABC News on Campus is probably all of the above, and it has produced a tiny beehive of activity at the University of Texas.

Tucked away in a closet-sized office on the fourth floor of UT's Jesse H. Jones Communication Center, the four-person campus bureau opened for business just a few weeks ago and quickly began chasing stories on sorority rush, binge drinking, presidential politics, student loans, tanning salons and ultimate Frisbee.

The foursome shoot, write, edit, create graphics and post stories to www.ABCnewsoncampus.com. It's new-media interning on a network scale. ABC provides all of the equipment — video cameras, computers, monitors, editing decks — and pays each student $2,500 per semester. That's not a huge chunk of change, but it's better than an unpaid internship at a local TV station.

And some of these student-produced stories could wind up on "World News," "Good Morning America" and "Nightline," a nice boost for any resume. The campus quartet already has had footage from one of their online pieces air on "GMA," so they're off to a good start.

ABC's UT workers are bureau chief Sara Loeffelholz, Joseph Millares, Chelsey Delaney and Andrew Egan. They are all seniors in UT's journalism school.

"This year we're guinea pigs," said Loeffelholz, a 21-year-old broadcast journalism major from Aledo, just west of Fort Worth. "We're learning everything about multimedia. And of course the contacts we've made are incredible."

No kidding. On Friday, Loeffelholz and the UT campus bureau's faculty adviser, Kate Dawson, spent a whirlwind day at ABC News in New York. Loeffelholz, instructed to wear the Disney/ABC uniform of khakis and blue blazer for a photo with the other college bureau chiefs, made a quick visit to "GMA" and "World News." It was the first of two on-site training trips.

UT's eager-beaver campus bureau is one of only five in the nation, chosen by ABC News because of the school's distinguished journalism department. Arizona State University, Syracuse University, the University of Florida and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also are in the guinea pig brigade.

Every weekday morning at 9:15, the bureau chiefs punch into a conference call with ABC News producers in New York. They pitch stories, provide updates for stories already in the pipeline and share ideas about what's happening on college campuses and around the world. So far nothing has been rejected.

"ABC knows they've been losing viewership among 18- to 25-year-olds," said Dawson, a TV news veteran who worked at Fox News and WCBS in New York before joining UT's faculty in 2006. "This program could attract younger viewers to the Web site and the more traditional shows like `World News' and `GMA' — and maybe develop a sense of loyalty."

Attracting young viewers to network TV might be wishful thinking, though. Among the 33 million viewers in the 18-to-25 demographic, only a negligible number watch network news. They gobble up news mostly from the Internet, 24-hour cable news and late-night comedy shows.

But it's not just young viewers who are abandoning traditional newscasts. The overall audience has declined over the years, and it's no secret that news budgets are shrinking along with opportunities in the news business. Loeffelholz and Millares say none of their friends who graduated in May from UT's broadcast journalism program is working in the business.

"It is scary, but I know if I work hard enough, I'll get where I want to be," said Loeffelholz, whose pie-in-the-sky dream is to anchor "GMA" but whose earth-bound goal is to report in a Top 10 TV market. "This is something I really want to do. I know I'll have to start in a smaller market and work my way up, but I've always wanted to do this."

Millares also hopes to work as a TV reporter, but he wants to do long-form documentaries, preferably on topics that are "interesting and out of left field." He says he'd be happy to work in a smaller or midsize market as long as he can tackle projects that interest him.

"From what I've learned, this is the way media is changing," Millares said. "You've got to be prepared to do anything — write for print, write for broadcast, film things for TV and the Internet."

Unlike people already working in print and TV news, this new generation of journalists will be pre-adapted to the digital age. They won't have to go back and re-learn journalism skills for the digital age.

"We all know what's going on," said Delaney, the multimedia expert of the group. "I think what we all really hope to gain here is authority. We want to be able to know we can transform journalism with new skills that many reporters haven't been able to use yet. ... If newsrooms don't transform all of their reporters into one-man bands, news institutions will only function as weak news sources for the alternative news outlets that are able to make those transformations."

So keep your eyes peeled for one of these UT/ABC News worker bees to pop up on "GMA" or Charles Gibson's newscast. It's bound to happen this school year; it's just a matter of time.

Diane Holloway writes for the Austin American-Statesman.