These two pieces provided every selling point and detractor for convergence that we've probably heard in the last couple of years. To me, the point is moot. Although it may take off as a mainstream movement for the first time, I think we must remember that perhaps nothing other than nomenclature for this 'mélange approach' to news media is entirely new. There's a magazine professor here who told me that, to earn his master's at Columbia in the 70s, he had to do everything from reporting and writing copy to putting together a documentary. Will economics dictate that all journalists must have multimedia skills, or will upper-level management value 'real news' more than ever-increasing profits? Only time will tell, but ultimately I think that it can only be a benefit to acquire such versatility, so as to prepare us for as much as possible in the world of journalism. On a side note, I do agree that most multimedia projects would work best on long-term stories; for breaking news, not only would the feasibility be questionable at best, the quality would most likely be shoddy. It's not in print news' best interest to replicate the inundation effect of broadcast's 24-hour news cycle. Is 'backpack journalism' here to stay? I don't know, but thankfully it's looking like backpack rap may have a future here.