Daily Archives: March 12, 2007

Chuck Fadely is asking people to submit examples of good newspaper video. It’s a noble task that so far has produced only a few examples. I submitted a couple of ideas via e-mail, but I didn’t submit any examples from the award-winning Bakersfield.com because I know Chuck would never accept those, even though there are some great examples of great news site video coming out of Bakersfield (and notice, I didn’t say just “newspaper video” — but news site video, because it’s the kind of video ALL news sites should be doing, whether newspaper, TV, radio or web only). And I didn’t submit any examples from the Ventura County Star, even though I know they produce video even Chuck would like, because their best video is too hard to find on the site. What I’m saying is, I did my part, are you doing yours? If not, submit examples to Chuck.The request from Chuck arose primarily because of comments by Lenslinger and others asking for examples of good newspaper video. It was a perfectly reasonable request. And it’s a great idea to extend a real dialogue, a dialogue we can all learn from, not just bicker.

But I think the knowledge exchange should go two ways, so here’s my request for the TV shooters: Where’s your examples of great online video? What have you done that we on the print-background side can learn from? I’m not talking about repurposed TV spots, but video shot specifically for the web with every bit of understanding that the web is different and demands a different voice, different pacing, different style?

I fully get that most TV shooters are outstanding at their craft. Nobody has ever disputed that. But the question I still have is, are they ready for the web?

Clearly, newspaper shooters have a lot to learn. Nobody disputes that. But I think newspaper video producers are getting a lot closer in spirit to getting the web than what I see from TV folks, which as far as I can tell is just repurposed TV video — even if it’s outtakes and extended quotes, it’s still TV video and not web video.

It’s March 12, 2007. What exists on the web right now that is an example of great web video shot by a TV shooter? I’d love to see it, as I’m sure many of my print-side colleagues would to see ti, because I’m sure we could learn from it.

I already know about Cyndy Green’s great piece on the cattle drive, so what else is there? Continue reading →

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I just got an e-mail from a blogging buddy. This blogger loves YouTube and finds a variety of interesting entertainment on the site — old music videos and TV shows, mainly — rarely anything current or widely popular.

Lately, he’s been getting frustrated because so much of what he’s previously embedded on his site has disappeared from YouTube because of the increasingly vigilant IP police. He wonders if he should just delete every embedded post he’s ever done and stop with the YT video.

My take: Why stop. Your posts that are more than a week old are way down the long tail by now, so I wouldn’t worry about them, and if you find something interesting and get a week’s worth of traffic out of it, that’s a good ROI.

As background, my position on YouTube has never been that it is popular for just one reason. I’ve heard people say that YT would falter once it lost all its pirated video. Not true, I’ve said, because underneath all the IP content is a vibrant community of original content creators and social networkers. There is a lot of value in YT even without clips of Rockford Files and Sly and Family Stone.

But my bet is that most of the bloggers who embed YT video pick stuff that is IP and is subject to eventual takedown.

Which raises the question — how long before the viral value of YT’s content model is stymied? Sharing won’t stop, and some original YT content is going to have a, “hey, Martha, take a look at this” appeal, but not a lot of it.

Where I’m going with this is: YouTube is changing. Competitors are lining up to try and kill it, IP owners are getting aggressive, and its core competitive advantages are easy to replicate. YouTube is a great brand, but brand may not be enough to protect Google’s $1.6 billion investment.

As users become more disenchanted with YouTube (through no real fault of YT), the more dispersed and distributed (less aggregated) video model I see emerging will become more powerful. Continue reading →

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