Monthly Archives: January 2007

While at Connections, I spoke with a few people about personal journalism, both where I opened the conversation and with a couple of people who approached me. It seems to be a term and definition of interest.

Here’s the opposite of personal journalism: Definitive-voice journalism.

Definitive-voice journalism is the journalism of big media, of packaged-good media. It is the way journalism has been practiced for some time. It is the journalism that the traditionalists defend. It is the journalism that says, “the news is what I say the news is.” I’m not predicting the demise of definitive-voice journalism, but personal journalism will become the dominant journalism within a matter of years. Continue reading →

I have’t used it, but Pump Audio looks like an interesting source of music for your videos.

Previously: Royalty-free music for your videos Continue reading →

I think Google is pretty smart about web advertising models. I’ve said before, preroll on video is a bad advertising model.

Interestingly, YouTube was considering pre-roll advertising, and Google said no. Continue reading →

Smart column from Diane Mermigas on the Hollywood Reporter about the challenges facing the newspaper business.  It opens with:

Consensus was voiced last week by leading executives from companies on the media spectrum as far flung as Google and Tribune Co. that the survival of newspapers depends on their ability to reinvent themselves online with new business models, the creation and execution of which continue to be lacking.

Behind last week’s heady public remarks about the fate of what is perhaps the media world’s most underestimated and challenged platform — delivered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as well as the Los Angeles Times newsroom — is the brutal reality that these traditional companies must undergo the costly process of dismantling and replacing legacy operations and business models with those completely new and untried. They face greater, fatal risks if they do not.

I know a lot of newspaper executives — I think at least one at every major newspaper company. These are people who by-and-large get it. Smart people who want to do the right things for the right reasons. I think we (as an industry) can figure out the models and get things right, but there are still more people in the industry fighting against change — there are even people in so-called new media operations fighting to protect old practices and old ways of thinking.  That’s the scary part. Continue reading →

OK, so we all know I’m a believer in low-cost, lo-fi video journalism. Sure, spend more if you can, but I see a lot of value in quickie, easy and inexpensive. I like it most for reporters as a supplement to their text reporting, but I also see value in using point-and-shoot for video-specific uses. This philosophy continues to draw fire from critics, but I still believe.

My original inspiration for this approach is Knoxnews.com and Random This. Jack Lail and his crew created P&S journalism.

I consider it both a validation of this approach and well deserved recognition for a pioneering effort that Random This won a Digital Edge award last night.

In other Edgie news. Bakersfield.com did not win in its category, which I found utterly disappointing (Rob Curley’s NaplesNews.com won). Steve Yelington, a true pioneer and one of my mentors in a manner of speaking since my earliest days online, won the Innovator of the Year award. I’m very happy for him.

Here’s a fun picture from last night — Me with Steve Dana and John Kunze. Steve was my boss in Ventura. I hired John in Ventura and he eventually replaced me, so you have three generations of VCS new media/digital directors.

UPDATE: Here’s a complete list of winners.  Congratulations to all. Continue reading →

Just yesterday, as part of a discussion in the Newspaper Video group, I said boldly that TV stations are in far more trouble than newspapers. The disruptions that have hit them and are still coming their way are more powerful than what newspapers face.

Well, I didn’t expect a TV station capitulate as quickly as KFTY in Santa Rosa, which laid off nearly all of its news staff and will now try to get by by on user-generated content.

“We are no longer in a position to access the advertiser base required to maintain two long form newscasts,” he (GM John Burgess) said.

Burgess said the changes were pushed by forces that are roiling most of the media industry, primarily the availability of free and alternative sources of news and entertainment on the Internet, as well as innovations that make it simple for people to post their own opinions on the Web in print, audio and video format.

“In my opinion, we’re all looking at better ways of truly touching our customers and I think for the television industry, if you’re not engaging your viewers and Web site users in two way-interactivity, you’re not going to be growing, especially over the next three to 10 years,” Burgess said.

So, can a commercial news organization survive on just UGC? I guess we’re about to find out, but I’m skeptical. I think the conversation is important, and I think what drives good conversation are paid staff who know what they’re doing. I’m not sure KFTY made the right decision here, but it will be an interesting experiment to watch.

(Hit Tip: Cyndy Green) Continue reading →

I left a comment on Angela Grant’s post about reporter-shot video, but I think it’s important enough that I duplicate the main point here.

Angela, you write, “To shoot a good video, you have to have multiple angles of your subject or action. …”

And this reveals, I think, a complete missperception on your part of what reporter-shot video is. Most of the time it IS NOT story video. It is one angle, one shot, that gets very little editing.

I think there will be times for the better trained and capable reporters to shoot story video. And I think that can be done credibly with inexpensive equipment.

However, the point of having a light and easy camera for reporters isn’t to shoot story video. It is to make sure they always have a camera with them and that they use it often.

Continue reading →

It’s old news, so maybe you’ve already read it, but if you haven’t, David Leeson’s essay on his experience in Iraq as an embedded photojournalists is very good. It’s about the importance of the journalistic mission and what he learned along the way.

I am a cynic of war. But cynicism did not prepare me for this war. I was not prepared to actually become fond of soldiers, but I did. More than that, I found myself in admiration of their discipline and their simple understanding of mission. For them, each battle was merely another step closer to home. These were not warriors in the true sense of bloodlust. They were lethal, yes; but killers, no.

Continue reading →

Doug Fisher quotes from an essay by Paul Gillen (server down on that link at the time of posting), and there’s a part I want to pull out:

The craft of reporting will become faster and more iterative. Rumor, speculation and incomplete information will be published far more readily, on the assumption that errors can be corrected. Stories will, in essence, be built in real time and in full public view. Reporters will file copy directly to the Web, often without a review by an editor. Readers will be a central part of the process, correcting and comment upon articles as they are taking shape. Reporting will become, in effect, a community process.

This new model will be very disruptive and very controversial. The idea that a news organization would publish information it did not know to be true flies in the face of all of our expectations. The concept of actively involving readers – who have no formal relationship with the news organization – in the reporting process will be too much for some editors to accept. There will be hand-wringing over fears of libel suits and other litigation. It is going to be an unholy brawl. (Bold in Doug’s quote)

I agree it’s going to be an unholy brawl, and I expect that even my saying that I agree with much of Gillian’s prediction will bring some howls of derision, even from journalists who run online shops.

The part I disagree with is that we will knowingly publish stuff that is not true. I can’t foresee that ever being an acceptable journalistic norm. Because we put stuff online sooner and quicker and possibly with less professional editorial oversight might mean more errors get published, but I doubt even that is true. There is an advantage of online over print on errors, though, and it’s important to remember: Online we find out about our errors sooner (from readers), correct them quicker, and they are potentially less permanent. That said, I think there will be both societal pressure and professional pressure to be even more careful about what we publish. When your readers become your editors, and they have blogs, too, the last thing you want to do is destroy your credibility by being consistently wrong. In the future, a writer’s byline, i.e. his reputation, is going to be even more important than it is today.

BTW:  I don’t like the idea of publishing more rumor and speculation any more than you do, but I do suspect that will happen.  But I also believe there will be more transparency about what a reporter knows and doesn’t know, and a honesty about asking for help on confirmation or denial. Continue reading →

On the 3ccd vs. P&S debate, Will Sullivan gets it.

I can appreciate both views, but lean closer to the point and shoot/less expensive camera crowd, mainly because I can relate to having to work with in a budget, especially a tight one. (The point and shoot/less expensive camera, DIY mentality really tickles my punk rock roots). And a lot of photographers turning to video really don’t understand that newspaper budgets are being demolished, it sucks (especially at papers that are doing well, but not well enough for Wall Street) but it has happened. What happened to the old photojournalism quote — “F8 and be there� (For photo newbies–�F8″ refers to a medium aperture setting that will catch detail at most distances and “be there,� meaning… you can’t document news if you aren’t there at the ‘decisive moment’ as Henri Cartier-Bresson often discussed).You adapt and make due with what you can. We don’t all have the privilege of working at the Washington Post or Network TV. The key is that you’re doing something, and the best you can, with what you can.

He also makes a good point about the need to make video production more conversational. Continue reading →