The last few weeks have seen some new tools released that could help transform how reporters and beatbloggers go about reporting and connecting with their communities.

I’m a big proponent of reporters and beatbloggers having “office hours” in the community. Why be tethered to a desk in a newsroom? Get out and meet your audience.

Being in an office is a strategic disadvantage for most journalists. How much news actually happens in the newsroom (besides layoffs and buyouts of course)? Almost all news happens in the cities we live in, in schools, in court houses, at prep sporting events, at town hall meetings, etc.

Almost everything that an office can offer a reporter — phone, computer, Internet connection, etc — can now be had on the road. Any local diner, coffee shop, high school football field, court house, etc can become a suitable office for a modern journalist.

The big advantage of reporting from the road is that it allows journalists to get details that they might not have gotten otherwise. Being able to report from the road is helping to redefine breaking news coverage. With a smartphone, a journalist can send in text, photos and videos on the go.

This can give a journalist a big leg up on reporting a story. More importantly, it leads to better coverage. Journalists — especially newspaper journalists — can now provide great breaking news coverage to match their in-depth second-day reporting. Now journalists can provide the full package, and with modern tools, they never have to step foot into the newsroom to do so (except maybe to pick up said tools).

No longer does a reporter have to waste time getting back to the newsroom to report a story. My proposal is to equip every content producer/beatblogger with at least a laptop, smartphone and mobile Internet access. Having a standalone digital camera that handles photos and videos better than a smartphone might not be a bad idea either.

Here are some of those tools that may help redefine reporting and help move journalists out of the newsroom:

The Verizon MiFi

Think of the MiFi like this: It’s a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that fits in your pocket. It uses Verizon’s excellent 3G network (many say it is the best) to create a portable hotspot.

It uses the same cellular network that smartphones and laptop data cards use, but it has some distinct advantages over the latter. First, the MiFi doesn’t have to be plugged into anything, unlike a laptop data card. That means it doesn’t suck your laptop battery dry.

Second, it’s a personal cellular WiFi connection wherever you go that can be shared by up to five devices. That means that you and your coworkers could share one MiFi access point.

Sending three journalists to cover one event? You’ll only need to bring one MiFi with you, which brings me to the second big advantage of MiFi. A news org doesn’t need to give every content producer his or her own MiFi. Instead, an office can have a pool of them to share.

Besides, a modern journalist will always have at least a smartphone with a cellular data connection with them. Ideally, a modern journalist would have a smartphone with a data plan and a MiFi at all times. But these are less than ideal times for journalism, and having a pool of MiFis may be a good way to save money.

Expect to see other carriers like AT&T, T Mobile and Sprint offering similar devices in the next year or so.

Here is what the NYT’s David Pogue had to say about the MiFi:

The MiFi is remarkable for its tiny size, its sleek good looks, its 30-foot range (it easily filled a large airport gate area with four-bar signal) — and the fact that it’s cordless and rechargeable.

It’s always exciting when someone invents a new  product category, and this one is a jaw-dropper. All your gadgets can be online at once, wherever you go, without having to plug anything in — no coffee shop required. Heck, it might even be worth showing the grandchildren.

Engadget also had glowing things to say about the MiFi:

The MiFi is drop-dead awesome in basically every meaningful way, and we’d be shocked if every top-tier carrier in the world wasn’t actively looking into adding it — or a device very similar to it — into their lineup. Unless you have a very specific, compelling reason that you require an ExpressCard or a USB stick style modem, the MiFi’s simplicity, flexibility, tethering capability, and no-compromise performance make it the way to go for your mobile data needs.

iPhone 3G S

What I really like about the new iPhone 3G S is its ability to not only shoot video, but also the ability to easily edit and share it on the go. Just being able to shoot some video is not good enough, even if you can wirelessly upload it. Being able to edit raw footage down is an important part of any video editing, and being able to easily edit videos on a smartphone is a big deal that could make journalists much more efficient with breaking news video.

With the new iPhone, a journalist could shoot video at a breaking news event, interview some people there, edit the videos and upload them to YouTube for instant sharing. The new iPhone also has MobileMe integration, which would allow a journalist to upload the video to a file server and for an editor back in the newsroom to grab it. The latter method would allow an editor to place this video into Brightcove or some other service that allows branding and advertising.

Yes, this is still cellphone video, but breaking news is all about breaking news. It’s not about how great the video quality is. People just want to be informed.

The Hudson River plane crash is an excellent example of why a smartphone (and social media) can be such a powerful reporting too. The most iconic photo from the event was snapped with an iPhone and uploaded to TwitPic.

The great thing about the new iPhone is that it has raised the bar for all other smartphones. Expect to see the ability to easily edit and upload videos from a smartphone being more and more common in the coming years.

As of right now, however, the new iPhone’s combo of photo/video capabilities, App store and ease of use make it my top recommendation for mobile journalists.

Digital cameras and netbooks

I’m not listing specific digital cameras or netbooks here, because there are plenty that will do the job and well. The big breakthrough here is really in price. There are many compact digital cameras for under $200 that take good photos and surprisingly good video. Along with falling compact digital prices come falling DSLR prices.

Entry-level DSLR cameras like the Nikon D60 can now be had for less than $550 with a decent lens included. I would seriously consider equipping any of my content producers that showed a talent for photography a camera like the D50.

At the minimum, having a pool of cameras like the D60 that content producers could use would be quite helpful. With a device like the MiFi and a laptop, photos could be easily edited and posted to the Web from almost anywhere.

Netbooks — the low cost, small laptops — are also falling in price. A decent netbook can be had in the $200-300 range. The big advantage of a netbook over a standard laptop is size. A small netbook is small enough and light enough to be tucked into many purses and almost any bag.

Because netbooks are so small and light, they are much easier to always have with you. Netbooks may also make a good choice for news orgs that invested money in desktops and don’t have the cash to buy full-sized notebooks.

What you can get rid of:

• Office phones — There is no real point to journalists having landlines, especially if we are encouraging journalists to get out into the community more. A smartphone can more than handle this duty.
• Less specialized employees — The era of specialized journalists may be coming to an end. By specialized, I mean people who only write, edit, take photos, etc. Most content producers should be able to at least write and take competent photos and video. A news org may still want a few dedicated photographers and videographers around for big stories and high-end content. Journalists will probably be specializing more in beats and niches and less in a specific content production means.
• Desktop computers — There really is no need for reporters to have a desktop computer anymore. The only thing a desktop does well is tether a reporter to the newsroom. Some specialized employees — the few the remain — may still benefit from the power of a desktop, but laptop computers are the better choice for just about every other journalist.