WIVB Reporter Rich Newberg is a legend, if you don't think so, just ask him.

The longtime Buffalo Reporter is getting ready to walk away from the business, but he feels the business, has already walked away from him. "It has been a very stressful five years not to be able to pursue my passion," Newberg says.

His passion is long form reporting and stations like WIVB don't do that anymore.

“My passion has always been the long-form pieces, the documentaries. I need time to develop the subject. I am passionate about social issues. … The inability to do what I love is the main reason for leaving.”

“It is almost surreal, the fact that after 46 years in business and 37 and a half (in Buffalo), on Jan. 1 it is going to be a different life,” said Newberg, whose immediate plans include having his film archives digitized and retrieved for educational purposes (like we said, he's a legend, he thinks).

Newberg added he isn’t comfortable with the industry changes that require tweeting, and posting on Facebook and Instagram. He appreciates that technology allows news organizations to go live at any time. But he adds the need to multitask doesn’t give reporters time to take notes or work a source in the field.

“What I find disconcerting is many times you have to put out information when you really haven’t locked down the story,” said Newberg. “I need time to reflect, to analyze, to observe and to think and also have the benefit of having a photojournalist to collaborate with and bounce things off of in the field.”

The business has changed and Newberg wants no part of what it has become.

But, no worries, his stories will digitized and retrieved for educational purposes. You know, because he's a legend.

H/T Buffalo News