In 1999 Bramwell Ryan went on his first multi-platform content production trip to Central America to cover the devastating effects of Hurricane Mitch. Since then he has traveled around the world as a solo journalist (SoJo) producing stories, photos, video and audio.

Multi-platform (or multi-media or multi-channel) production of news and current affairs/feature material has numerous advantages over traditional content production:

• It costs less – lower travel and expenses; lower total salaries.
• It expands the ways in which stories can be told – each communication medium has strengths and weaknesses. Having one individual create content for all platforms allows for better exploitation of the character and personality of each medium.
• There is better information integrity with one person handling the raw data for production into final content.
• Repurposing doesn’t work – there is no compelling way to turn a print piece into a television item or to reuse a radio piece in a print product. The only way to fully exploit convergence is to intentionally gather multi-platform content at the outset and then to stream it into various delivery channels.
• Greater flexibility – one person can switch and adapt faster than a crowd. A SoJo is ready for anything, anywhere, anytime.

In order to produce his multi-platform content Bramwell Ryan has a substantial amount of digital equipment, all field-tested in tough settings. The equipment includes:

• a Canon XL-1 digital video camera
• two Nikon D70s plus a variety of lenses
• a Mac laptop for field use and editing plus various Mac desktops
• a variety of mics and voice recorders
• all the necessary software to handle copy, photographs, video and audio

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