HeraldTribune.com's own Melissa Worden talked about her recent speaking engagement in California, where newsroom folks asked her advice on how to crack the clique that runs multimedia. And she has some advice from inside the clique.

What I learned is some of them feel there are so many hoops to jump through to do multimedia, or that the one person who knows how to post the content is often too busy to work on their projects.

I know exactly how they feel. From both sides.

As a content producer at USATODAY.com, I used to have to pitch stories to the Rich Media team, hoping they’d have the time and resources to do it — and they had a “team.”

In smaller newspapers, oftentimes only one person coordinates all the multimedia content. As multimedia producer at HeraldTribune.com, I was inundated last January with multimedia requests from the newsroom when they were told “Web content” was to be a part of their performance goals (they didn’t realize at the time that “the Web” can be more than “multimedia”). I became the one who had to say no to projects.

As a reporter itching to get involved in online, what do you do? How do you get around this?

I think one way (which is what HeraldTribune.com is doing now), is to put the tools, resources, and the ability to actually post the content via CMS in the hands of the reporters and editors.

Gulp.

Wait a minute. That’s MY job as a multimedia producer.

She goes on to explain why after all her years of experience and training, she decided it's in the best interest of the newspaper to let everyone else take the multimedia reigns.