Here’s a nice, complimentary post about the GateHouse Media video strategy from a local political blogger.
Cool. I don’t know the guy. He’s not part of the professional media crowd, as far as I know (he posts anonymously). He’s what some might call a “citizen journalist.” And he gets it.
He recognizes the difference between our FasterMore strategy vs. Gannett’s BiggerBetter strategy (see Ryan).
The Messenger-Post took an entirely different tack. They give their print reporters cheap cameras and had them add video to their stories. The M-P treats video as a complement to the print story. One good example is yesterday’s coverage of an accident at a local ice warehouse. Here’s a better one: a feature on a local sword swallower. You don’t have to watch the video to understand the story, but if you’re interested in the story, watching the video adds more detail. It’s not always done perfectly, but the sword swallower piece is as near a perfect fusion as I’ve seen.
That sword swallower video certainly is something to see … and I, for one, really don’t need to see that shot with a Canon XH-A1 (or even the Sony camcorders Gannett issues) and then have it over edited.
And I’ve got to say, MP is doing a great job with our video approach. They get some good pieces that fit well with their stories and are conscientious about shooting lots of video.
If you want to see more GHS video from all over the country — the good, the bad and the ugly — click here.
You’re getting compliments where it counts the most – in viewership.
Given the size of the markets involved, and the type of subjects, your videos are receiving a surprisingly large number of views.
I’d say this is all the vindication you need for your strategy.
I went to the you tube link and the numbers on the boy playing piano and guy with the toy trucks didn’t seem particularly high. But then I realize I don’t really know what a good number should be. Just curious if the roughly 1300 on the piano video and 400 on the toy exhibit are considered a success at this point? thanks
The views on any one video is subject to so many variances that making an objective judgment is problematic.
We have issues we need to address in how we collate and display video that hurts our chance to get as many views as we could.
We have many videos on YT that I’m quite happy with the amount of views at this point; and few that I’m surprised don’t have more views; and many that have very few views for pretty obvious reasons (I think).
Thanks for the link – just noticed it. I’m not affiliated with any local media, except RocWiki.org, which is a volunteer organization.
Video isn’t the only place where Gatehouse leads in the 29th Congressional District – their political coverage is generally and shoulders about the Gannett papers, with the Messenger-Post Corning Leader doing consistent good work. It’s also interesting to see that Gatehouse tends to let its properties run independently. I don’t know if that’s an artifact because you guys just started up, but it’s nice to see corporate media that isn’t cookie-cutter, like Gannett.
[…] Howard Owens finds a like-minded blogger who approves of his “disruptive” video strategy. But here’s a contradiction: He chose NYTimes.com for best video effort on his little Howard Owens awards list. The Times is doing much higher-quality work than Howard advocates for his own papers. Weird. […]