Aperture

I recently had an email discussion about the future of video on newspaper websites with a print-journalist friend of mine. I thought it was interesting and wanted to pass it along. So here it is, in Q&A format. I’ve anonymized everything, as the person offers some fairly candid opinions, and would prefer they not get in the way of good work relationships.  Anyhow, what say you?

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Friend: Newspapers are getting big on video—really big—which I am not convinced on, because people look at news sites during the day, when they’re at work. And it’s pretty hard to look busy while watching video at work. This is why video hasn’t gotten huge traction yet and I’m not sure how much of an audience there is for video news in the off hours. And if it’s going to be done, I suspect it will be by people who specialize in video, either out of TV or Hollywood. (This is the same reason NPR’s podcasts are successful and so many newspaper podcasts are unbearable failures.)

Right now, newspaper websites are confusing technology with talent. I mean, producing, filming, scripting and editing (not to mention, say, interviewing and thinking) are all actual skills people have, for years and years, gone to school and learned and practiced in a several marketplaces. But we act like the ability to put it on the Internet automatically produces people who can do that stuff and do it well. It’s as if we had page designers or printers write the stories.

Me: Do you think the next generation of journalists, many of whom seem to be cross-training in different media, will do a better job of this stuff?

Friend: Well, probably, but I don’t know how good the video programs at the J-schools are. That’s not code for “I’m suspicious of them.” I mean, I honestly don’t know.

I mean, print and radio and video are all pretty different from each other, right? So while I think you’ll get a few people who are good at all three (like athletes who can play baseball and basketball and football), mostly people will do one thing. And there’s the real problem—that some newspapers now expect you to do text, audio and video for the same story, which is not such a hot idea. I mean, it’s possible to be a tri-athlete but it’s impossible to run, bike and swim simultaneously.

Me: Okay, if we take your premise, might we see a few outlets that allocate different resources to different stories, though? Lots of TV news organizations, for instance, run wire stories for most of their print articles, and produce their own video. With varying levels of success, of course. Not everyone likes the end product.

Friend: In my ideal world, the same place would employ people to do audio, video and print. I mean, we’re already comfortable employing both photographers and reporters.

It’s just that right now newspapers have the peculiar idea that before the Internet such things as audio and video didn’t exist, and therefore we don’t have to hire outside of our narrow industry.

Plus, there’s the youth thing. Editors both don’t understand young people, and simultaneously crave them as totems of relevance. Ditto for the Internet. So they assume that all young people “get” the Internet and are good at it—and since they assume audio and video are Internet things, the young must also be good at audio and video. Never mind that your shiny new videographer is a film school reject.

Me: What about newspaper sites that do seem to have put together some high quality video, like the Washington Post? Their animated editorial cartoons and their illustrator series on “drawing the candidates,” for instance, have both been both well-done—and apparently very popular.

Friend: Yeah, some of the video over there was pretty nice. And someday in the future when the Internet replaces both television and newspapers, video will be a very important part of that. But while it makes all sorts of sense to get good at video in advance of that day (you never know when it will arrive), I don’t think it should be championed ahead of what works right now and what you’ll still need in the future—an organization of your information that is both complete and versatile, i.e., having working digital archives and good search engines, along with some good tags and context linking.

But that stuff frequently gets ignored at newspaper organizations—it doesn’t make for sexy PowerPoint presentations.

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Further Reading:

Newspaper Video Blog on Blogspot

“Newspapers Find Online Video Niche” on B&C

Newspaper Association of America on Online Video