This reporting text devotes 95 pages to gathering and researching the news (including Internet sources) before it moves on to how to write. Then, in Chapter 8, "Writing in Different Media," the authors provide background on a fire story in California and provide four versions of how that story was written: first, for radio, and then for TV, print, and finally, online. Well, actually the online story isn't shown -- instead, the text tells how the print reporter filed breaking news updates to his newspaper's Web site throughout the day.

I consider that a flaw, but at least this text pays more than lip service to the idea of "converging media." Both authors are journalism educators, one with a print reporting background, and the other a lawyer and former broadcast news researcher and producer. The visual design of the book leaves much to be desired, but the generous use of first-person examples from working journalists makes for a very readable text.

One brief sidebar offers tips for online writing (page 112); the rest of the book (outside Chapter 8) concentrates on how to do reporting, not how to write. There are no distinctions among the media, and the journalists interviewed work for all manner of media outlets.

Notable: Myriad ways to use the Internet in reporting appear throughout the book, in nearly every beat section. The advice and ideas for digging up new stories and background through online sources are exceptionally good.

Bottom line: Suitable for a second reporting course, especially one where students produce work for multiple media. Not appropriate for a course focused on online writing.

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