For those who are not familiar to the lingo, a stringer is a freelance journalist whether they’re on or off camera. Historically in radio they get paid to call and do a phoner. The key word of a stringer is they are freelancers; and are paid for providing content. For local media, and some markets, it was more common back years ago. Some markets were dependent on stringers. For an example, the parents of MSNBC’s Katy Tur made their living sending video to the local stations in the LA market with their own Betacam and newscopter, not working for a specific station. The Southland is an interesting market, because one they have the largest newsgathering on the West Coast, but has been dependent on stringers.
