A panel discussion today at the Digital News Affairs 2008 video journalism conference in Belgium attempted to answer the question: Can video save the print industry?
Moderator Richard Gizbert from Al Jazeera International speaks with: Edward Roussel, Digital Editor, Telegraph (U.K.) Media Group; Bas Broekhuizen, Editor, Volkskrant TV; Charles de Broede, Online chief Editor, de Telegraaf; Adriaan Bouten, Sr. VP and Chief Information Officer, McGraw-Hill; and Joris Van Heukelom, CEO, Ilse Media
Many of the panelists agreed that the culture in a newspaper's executive suite was the biggest stumbling block to video. And the difficulty in selling ads is a problem. There is some optimism that targeted advertising in video will be profitable.
But how to achieve success was still an unkown. Charles de Broede from de Telegraaf advocates for live streams and more of a TV model, while Joris Van Heukelom of Ilse Media says to give up the head of the long tail to broadcast and put your resources in the long tail of searchable video.
Adriaan Bouten noted that their business-to-business subscripton videos on construction techniques were doing well financially but that biz-to-consumer video was not.
Apparently, the question of whether video can save the print industry is not an easy one to answer.
type='html'>"Where's the good newspaper web video?" I'm asked.
Some of the best newspaper video is not just video but a mix of video, stills, graphics and words. Some of the best is narrative; some not. Here's are links to some cool stuff:
The Dallas News is doing some great work and is well along in converting all its still shooters into video shooters. They do good stuff almost every day. But their Katrina anniversary package is very moving: A Year after the Heartbreak shows that David Leeson understands that video - even when done with stills - is an emotional medium. Also check out Yolanda's Crossing . Dallas' Leeson has some of their good stuff on iTunes podcasts: Best Of, which includes Moments 2006, which is still on their site along with Leeson's blog, which lists a bunch of good video. Whew!
Tom Van Dyke at the Chicago Tribune did this weather feature on one of his first outings with a new video camera - and instead of trying to do TV, he found a great character:
(And why can't I embed video from any newspaper sites?)
Everyone knows about Travis Fox at the Washington Post, but they've got some other great talent: Drumline by Preston Keres has the rhythm. And Justin's Got Game is a good hoops story by Pierre Kattar.
Stephen Crowley at the New York Times (who's only been at it a year) has done some cool stuff with reporter Charlie LeDuff on their series American Album .
Roger Richards at the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot edited and produced My Favorite Child, a moving story about the lasting effects of institutionalizing a child with Down Syndrome.
And some newspaper video doesn't have a frame of video in it: Train Jumping from Gary Coronado and writer Christine Evans at the Palm Beach Post isn't video but has nat-sound driven narrative.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Richard Koci Hernandez and Dai Sugano and the rest of the staff over at the San Jose Mercury News are pushing the envelope with their interpretive video, and though there are sometimes rough edges it's always fresh: Friday Night: 7 Bamboo, a karaoke bar story by Dai Sugano is very different from what we're used to and Richard's solo production of Red Hot Rails, a Flash/video/still examination of the explosion of railroad traffic due to increasing imports, is great. And The Extreme Southwest is art, as is Richard's essay on the the Seasons.
Lest we forget our friends up north, the National Post produced Eastside Blues as their very first attempt at video. The Toronto Star's Bernard Weil has a little more experience and has a good Skating video.
UPDATE: The Detroit Free Press is also doing some good work covering the military and Iraq: The Christmas from Fallujah video by Dave Gilkey . And the first Michigan Band of Brothers video of their training in the Mojave Desert before their deployment to Iraq. They also covered a Marine funeral, covered by two shooters (in the same video) in Iraq and Michigan. (Needs Firefox on a Mac.)
Sonya Doctorian at the Rocky Mountain News has done a lot of good stuff, including A Sister's Gift .
I am in Belgium for the Digital News Affairs video journalism conference
Michael Rosenblum, who trains VJ's and produces TV shows, gave the opening remarks at the DNA 2008 Digital News Affairs conference in Brussels, Belgium today. Michael is a well-known evangelist for the one-man-band VJ model, hailed by some as a visionary and reviled by traditional television crews as someone who is trying to kill TV.
He talked about the coming storm in the news industry, a storm which will be brought about by new technology putting the means of producing television into the hands of anyone.
"In the world of journalism and technology ... we are headed for the 500-year storm. There is a giant tidal wave out there."
"500 years ago Gutenberg brought the printing press to bear. Gutenberg thought the printing press was about making cheaper bibles and so did everyone else. But that's not what it did. What the printing press did; it put the ability to publish in the hands of anyone who wanted to try, and that changed the world."
"The invention of the printing press... brought about the world of a free press, which is what we live in today."
"We don't live in a world of print; we live in a world of video and online. And these little cameras, and these laptops; these are the Gutenberg printing press of the 21st Century."
"They make it possible for anyone with an idea to publish in the most common medium in the world...
"This technological storm is going to wash away most of what we understand today and replace it with something entirely different. Whether you participate in it or are taken away by it, is entirely in your hands. But it is going to come."
