The Future of TV News

BREAKING NEWS: Multi-Level Paradigm Shift for TV News!

2007-01-10T20:36:00.000-05:00

By Kevin Osgood
Direct2Pod

I've thought a lot about the uses of these new technologies announced this week (Apple TV & Netgear). Especially today when I was on the road visiting a small rural Tennessee station. Somewhere near Chattanooga it struck me - This new technology changes everything!

It's a paradigm shift on a couple levels for all of broadcast news!

First this will change the way people watch TV in that they can tell their computer to go and download everything they want to watch. When viewers come home - they fire up the PC or Apple and organize the shows in the order they want and hit start.. BAM - it's off to the TV for playback!

Image getting only what you want - when you want it - even your news. EVEN YOUR NEWS.

Great! Television broadcasters have been putting stuff on their web sites for years now so what's the big deal? How may television web sites have pod-casts set up? The answer is easy- FEW!

We'll call these people "New TV" users (formerly viewers).

So there is shift number one. How these New TV users will watch.

Shift number two takes television news to task fast. For years we've been asking stations to push new, exclusive or 'web only' video to pod-casts. But when you consider how these New TV users will utilize this new technology (Apple TV & Netgear) that material 'does not a newscast make'!

To meet the demands of New TV users stations must create short, concise, thorough mini-newscasts and post them as pod-casts. It has to be something that can easily be updated several times a day as news warrants.

Don't even think of including weather and sports in that mini-newscast - give weather and sports their own pod-cast! It opens up another potential sponsorship and gives the New TV user yet another choice.

Now and in the future it is all about choice. News organizations that embrace these paradigm shifts will be meeting the needs of New TV users and if you meet the needs of the viewer, they'll watch - and you'll win.

2007-01-09T15:14:00.000-05:00

January 9, 2007

The visual revolution is well underway and even if your news web site has video you are at risk of being left behind by the demographic you most want.

Take a look at what Apple and Netgear have announced recently. The home television and the home computer are now linked and will likely be that way for decades to come.

The channels of a home television set are losing relevancy daily. Now people can choose what they want to watch and when they want to watch it – period.

Sure people will want to stay informed, so as this technology takes hold they’ll seek out compatible news operations not for the content they offer, but for the ease of use and compatibility with their home systems.

That’s why we created Direct2Pod, to manage and distribute video pod casts. Broadcast journalists were involved at every step of the development of Direct2Pod. They had to be if we wanted it to be something that could mesh perfectly into the workflow of a busy overworked and understaffed newsroom.

Direct2Pod provides a way for your news product to truly become interactive with the viewers and users of today and tomorrow. Being on the cutting edge for your viewers will enhance your credibility and position your news product as the ‘leader’ for years to come.

As I said, we have talked with a lot of broadcast journalists before and during development of Direct2Pod. It is designed to grow and help them meet potential changes in user demands. We’ll be there every step of the way for our clients. Once on board with us, we’re partners in growing the system to be even better.

Our product is leased by our clients for a monthly fee and we’ve set up D2P’s pricing in such a way that even smaller television stations and newspapers can easily turn a profit on pod casting in the first year.

The D2P System Launch Special is now underway. Discounts and special start-up arrangements that can save you more - even from our regular low price.

This discount applies to contracts signed before March 2, 2007.

If you’re interested in learning more visit direct2pod.com and take a closer look.

Or, please feel free to give me a call - I'll be happy to tell you all about D2P and our Launch Special.

Kevin Osgood

256.704.7700 x.126

One Year into the Future!

2007-01-06T09:30:00.000-05:00

Today is the one year anniversary of this blog. It may have taken this long to take things from conversation to invention. A year later Direct2Pod exists and version II is in the marketplace.

A year from now where will we be?

Right in the middle of the technology revolution - I'm guessing.

Where are the Video Pod Casts Going?

2006-12-19T23:41:00.000-05:00

Of the nine television news operations that were doing video pod casts six months ago - only three are still cranking out video pod casts and of those, not all are doing it daily.
I think I may know why and it all boils down to time.
Who has time to move the video around to the right place and get it ingested into a system where someone can then post it to the web site? With the demands on time in a television newsroom I can see where some would just toss the video pod cast without much thought.

But wait.
I have two reasons you need to consider for delivering video pod casts now. First, your future is in getting unique video to the hand-held devices your viewers are buying and using.

Second, if it takes too much time to move video around to where it can become a pod cast - then you need to seriously look at Direct2Pod. We've automated much of the process and you can assign some non-traditional news people to the few remaining steps.
Doing this means you create a reputation for your news product among your local users as the place to get local news content.

How valuable is that to you?

Direct2Pod is Live for WHNT TV

2006-12-14T12:07:00.000-05:00

WHNT TV in Huntsville Alabama is the first station to utilize Direct2Pod for video pod casting.

WHNT is owned and operated by the New York Times Company. News that the broadcast group is for sale didn't dampen the spirit of the launch. The entire NYT broadcast group is watching how D2P performs in Huntsville and I am confident it'll exceed their expectations.

We presented the system several months ago and worked with WHNT to adapt it to their work-flow needs. We had some bumps in the he road but we have a very functional system in place that allows the station to easily post downloadable video to their web site.

WHNT elected not to utilize Direct2Pod's flash video player because of their contractual agreement with their web site provider (WN).

The station's internet content manager told me, "It's great, it's easy to use and we're starting to post all kinds of content."

I have to thank WHNT for going through the initial portion of tweaking D2P to get it ready to work - but it's ready and performing well and here's the best part. Our development team is allready working on the next generation Direct2Pod system.

Here's the link to WHNT's pod cast page by Direct2Pod.

Are Pre-roll Ads Killing your News Web Site?

2006-12-12T11:57:00.000-05:00

By Graeme Newell
gnewell@602communications.com

When new technology comes on the scene, the new products often look and act like the old ones. For example, the first cars had the same form as horse-drawn carriages. The first refrigerators looked like old-fashioned ice boxes. As new technology is introduced, we need the comforting forms of the more familiar predecessor to ease us through the transition.

The same has been true in the news business. When radio was introduced, many of the first broadcasts consisted of announcers reading the paper over the airways. Many of you veteran television folks may remember "slides" from the bygone days of broadcasting. A 35mm slide was put on the screen while the announcer talked about the program. In effect, this was radio on TV. You would never see this kind of thing today. TV is about moving video and it took the better part of three decades before the industry finally stepped into its own and got rid of video slides.

Unfortunately, the same thing is happening now as we make the transition from broadcast TV to streaming video over the internet. We are still following the basic format and tone of TV despite the fact that the internet has groundbreaking features to radically change the experience. It is just more comforting for us to do TV on the internet than to make full use of the internet's opportunities.

Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the TV web site advertising world. Most all of the broadcast groups make money on streaming media content through "pre-roll" ads. We require the viewer to sit through an ad before rewarding them with a news story. Typically, these ads will be identical to a broadcast ad, despite the fact that the two different media call for radically different advertising strategies.

Detailed ads don't work
On television, every second is incredibly valuable. This means that detailed ads that lay out explanations of features just don't work. There just isn't time to explain anything in detail. Traditionally, advertisers who wanted to convey detailed ad information looked to newspapers or magazines. A car dealer could list the price of every vehicle on the lot. TV was meant to exclaim - newspapers to explain. Still, the price of newspaper advertising was very high. Then, along came the internet, offering detailed product information at no extra cost. Every scrap of product minutia could be posted to the site with no increase in expense.

Web site pre-roll ads ignore the awesome potential for detailed web site information. The sole goal of a pre-roll ad should be to get you to click on the links below the ad. That means all your pre-roll ads should feature detailed advertiser links immediately under the video window.

The problem is that most stations still see the ad as a part of the video clip, rather than an integrated part of the web page. We are comfortable with the familiar model of ads and content appearing together because that's the way we've always presented our stories on the evening news. Video ads that are directly linked to specific web clicks are less familiar.

A typical pre-roll ad for a car dealer will make very general product claims. "Come down to Billy Bob's Chevy Barn for the Valley's widest selection of Chevy trucks." Instead, the ad should directly reference the web links surrounding the video box. "Click on the link below this box to see detailed info on every Chevy truck we have on the lot right now. Plus, see a side-by-side comparison of Ford and Chevy trucks in every class." Below the video box will be a link for every class of truck: compact, midsize, full-size, etc.

When we traffic web ads, the links on the web site are typically quite random. Sure, we may put a client's banner ad somewhere on the same page, but it rarely works in tandem with the pre-roll ad. Our traffic systems for web video need to be dramatically redesigned to allow direct integration of pre-roll video and the rest of the links on the web page. Many non-broadcast web sites have stepped into this technique and are getting dramatic results. Those of us in the broadcast world are having a harder time because we're comfortable with the old broadcast model. The power of pre-roll ads comes from video's ability to get attention combined with a web link's ability to provide specific product detail. The two must be seamlessly designed, trafficked and delivered to motivate action.

If we hope to make our web sites effective, we need to deliver results for our clients. It is no longer enough just to re-rack the broadcast ad on the web site. TV sales people need to work with clients helping them to design and create specific web ads that fulfill the full potential of the internet's ability to deliver specific information. This will have two big effects:

Pre-roll ads can be shorter and less annoying
If the sole goal of a pre-roll ad is to motivate a click, the ads no longer need to contain product detail. We'll let the link do that. Those interested in the product will get a full meal of information with just a click. Those who aren't interested in the product will not be forced to sit through a long dissertation of product attributes that just waste their time.

Repetitive pre-roll ads can go away
Research tells us that one of the biggest complaints with pre-roll ads is repetition. If I go to a TV web site and watch ten or twelve stories, I may see the exact same ad so many times that I'm ready to get a gun. At this point the web site experience becomes so bad that viewers are actively driven away. Once web site trafficking systems get better, we can design the ad experience for each specific customer.

How long is too long on a pre-roll ad? New research indicates that 15 seconds is the magic number. Anything past that number and you might as well have a three minute pre-roll ad. You're going to lose them. One thing that really helps retain viewers - have a countdown indicator so the viewer knows exactly how long the ad will last. This can be done with an hour glass or with a progress bar under the screen.

... To watch the video presentation click here.

Direct2Pod is About to Premier!

2006-11-29T20:51:00.000-05:00

A CBS station in a mid size market will be the first to utilize Direct2Pod. It'll go on line very soon.
Stay Tuned!

Internet Users Ahead of Broadcasters on Election Night

2006-11-28T10:49:00.000-05:00

By David BauderASSOCIATED PRESS

Election night 2006 will go into history books as a triumph for Democrats and rebuke to President Bush. It was a watershed evening for the news media, too.

The first smoothly run election night of the Internet era left many news organizations unsure of where they stood and should prompt some rethinking in time for 2008, according to a detailed new report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The journalism think tank monitored several forms of media that night and concluded the best place to follow the story was on Web sites run by television networks - as opposed to the networks themselves.

Because of the richly detailed Web sites, fed by both results and exit poll data gathered by the networks and The Associated Press, Internet browsers frequently were more up-to-date than the anchors and pundits on the air, said Tom Rosenstiel, the project's director.

CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC offered wall-to-wall coverage on TV that night. To a large extent, the networks - particularly CNN - see elections as an opportunity to show off their biggest names, but the slow pace of results this year frequently left them with little to say or do, Rosenstiel said.

"Showcasing talent may not always be the best way of telling the story," he said.
The cable networks should spend less time on pointless talk and more time with reporters, and could even supplement coverage during quieter times with prepared reports on the personalities and issues, he said.

"If they wanted to tell the story of the election rather than put on a live television show, they could have had a much richer profile," he said.

That's unlikely, since when a prepared report appears "you're going to say to yourself, `I'm going to go to the other channel and find out what's going on,'" said Bill Wheatley, a former NBC News executive who produced three separate election nights for the network.

CBS and NBC spent an hour of prime-time on the election, 90 minutes on ABC. The compressed time and smaller news staffs made anchors Katie Couric on CBS, Charles Gibson on ABC and Brian Williams on NBC even more central to their broadcasts, the project's report said.
"Their shows didn't really differ that much from what you could see on cable," Rosenstiel said. "They differed in length."

Broadcasters have frequently been criticized for cutting back on time spent on the air during some elections and political conventions. With the cable networks taking those hours, broadcasters might be better served trying to reach the nonpolitical junkies on election night by focusing on personalities and broad themes, he said.

"Even for the political junkies, sometimes the information is only part of it," Wheatley said. "They do want to get the analysis. They do want to hear what Tim Russert says." But keeping a broader perspective might be wise, he said. "Every election night is different," said Wheatley, who has done some consulting work for the AP since retiring from NBC, although not on election coverage. "The most important thing is who is winning and what does it mean. ... You have the resources to change on a dime."

The World is Getting Smaller

2006-11-18T02:41:00.000-05:00

If you are reading this page you know that. Technology makes it that way. But I'm here to tell you today - that traveling to Dhaka, Bangladesh and back in a weeks time is enough to make you set up a video conference call next time!

The partnership is a done deal.

2007 is going to be an exciting year at Direct2Pod.

Stay tuned.

Big Things in The Works for D2P

2006-11-08T09:35:00.000-05:00

We may be a small operation based in little old Huntsville, Alabama but we've made a big connection with our development of online video systems for the news media.

We've attracted the attention of a company based well outside the U.S. and they are very interested in utilizing Direct2Pod in their future projects.

This company sets up regional and national broadcast news networks. They are also looking at setting up an international channel similar to CNN sometime in 2007.

We'll keep you posted on our team effort.

For now I'll tell you this, we're working together on a project for a national 24-hour a day cable news network in Bangladesh.

In-fact, I leave tomorrow for Dhaka!

You Tube, a Threat and a Tool for the Media

2006-11-01T09:30:00.000-05:00

By Yuki Noguchi and Sara Kehaulani GooWashington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Media companies are of two minds about Internet video-sharing site YouTube, which rocketed to fame by letting users share homemade videos along with copyrighted clips from movies, TV shows and music videos.
They are unsure of whether YouTube is a friend or a foe -- a threat that could siphon off their TV audiences and ad dollars or a powerful promotion machine that could generate buzz for the shows. While users have had virtually unfettered freedom to post and watch whatever clips they want, big media companies are starting to reassert control by seeking removal of some shows.

Read it all here...

Valuable Insight for the Future - from RTNDA

2006-10-26T10:03:00.000-04:00

Written by Chip Mahaney at the RTNDA technology event in New York:

One of the biggest challenges (and opportunities too) for traditional news organizations is going from a linear (newscast) mindset to a mindset that’s totally non-linear.

The final session of the day featured digital news executives from ABC, CBS, CNN and FOX talking about the challenges their organizations are facing in a world that no longer relies on television for the bulk of its news, and what strategies they’re counting on to grow their brand in the years ahead.

Click here for the entire discussion.

Blog Breaks Story for ABC News

2006-10-02T09:04:00.000-04:00

A post on Brian Ross’ blog on ABCNews.com got the ball rolling on the email investigation surrounding now former Congressman Mark Foley, said Howard Kurtz on CNN’s Reliable Sources.

The post about an email to a 16-year-old page resulted in Ross receiving far more sexually explicit messages, which lead to a story on air. Goes to show that blogs can be a powerful tool for news organizations.

TV to Lose $7-Billion by 2011

2006-09-28T10:15:00.000-04:00

From Lost Remote:

JupiterResearch predicts that broadcast and cable TV will pick up $5 billion in revenue from new ad platforms by 2011. That’s the good news. The bad news is TV will lose $12 billion in traditional revenue over the same period, thanks to ad-skipping and other disruptive technologies. “We advise media planners not to cave in to TV and Nielsen’s talk about new live-plus ratings. If stuff is time-shifted, a lot of the ads will definitely be skipped,” says Jupiter VP David Card. Ah, finally someone who’s not fooled by the fuzzy math the network research gurus are spinning. (Via Pomo Blog)

For the story click here.

Online opportunities for small-market stations

2006-09-18T13:21:00.000-04:00

Participants at last week's NAB Small Market TV Exchange conference in San Diego explored the challenges and opportunities facing small-market broadcasters. The top issues under discussion were retransmission consent fees, digital multicasting and extending into online platforms. TVNEWSDAY (free registration) (9/18)
Posted from NAB Smart Brief

AT&T to launch web TV service

2006-09-12T11:36:00.000-04:00

By Paul Taylor in New York

Financial Times.Com - September 12 2006

AT&T, the biggest US telecommunications group, is to launch an internet TV service that will enable subscribers to view a selection of live and streamed TV channels on their PC over any wired or wireless broadband connection for $20 a month.

The browser-based service, dubbed AT&T Broadband, will be announced on Tuesday and will be the first of its kind in the US. The US carrier has teamed up with MobiTV, the fast growing California-based mobile TV content aggregator, to deliver the service.

“The AT&T Broadband TV service is part of our ‘three screen’ [phone, PC and TV] initiative,” said Doug York, AT&T’s senior vice-president of programming. “It will enable our customers to watch live television programming beyond the TV screen, on a PC when and where they want.”

The launch comes amid an explosion of internet-based video content services including user-generated video sites such as YouTube and Google Video, and TV and movie download services including Amazon’s Unbox, launched last week.

Apple Computer is also on Tuesday expected to announce an iTunes movie download service and already offers iPod users clips of popular TV shows. But the AT&T service goes a step further by offering live programming available at the same time as it is broadcast, or carried over cable and satellite services to PC users.

The big US telecoms groups have also been rolling out mobile TV services to 3G subscribers. According to figures released on Monday by Telephia, a communications and new media research firm, the US mobile TV audience grew by 45 per cent to 3.7m subscribers in the second quarter, and mobile TV revenues grew to $86m, up 67 per cent over the first quarter of this year.

The AT&T Broadband TV service will initially have approximately 20 channels of live and made-for-broadband television content spanning national news, sports, entertainment and full-length music videos.

Old media increase share of online ads

2006-09-12T11:26:00.000-04:00

From the Financial Times
By Aline van Duyn in New York
September 12 2006

Traditional US media companies are increasing their share of the fast-growing online advertising sector relative to internet rivals such as Google and Yahoo, according to a new study.

In one of the first detailed reports of the relative positions of traditional media companies and their online competitors, Veronis Suhler Stevenson, the private equity group, has shown that, contrary to many people’s expectations, media companies are holding their own in the digital space.

VSS will report on Tuesday in its annual comprehensive study of the media business that this year, of the $22bn expected to be spent on online and mobile advertising in the US, traditional media groups’ share is forecast to be 37 per cent, up from 23 per cent in 2000.

By 2010, when internet and mobile advertising is due to reach $44bn, traditional media companies are expected to capture $17bn, or nearly 39 per cent, of the total.

James Rutherford, managing director at VSS, said: “There has been a lot of handwringing about media companies not making any money in the online world but what the data show is that their position is better than we would have assumed. Traditional media firms have worked hard at finding ways to extend their reach online, and this is paying off.”

Media companies such as Time Warner, News Corp, General Electric’s NBC Universal, CBS, Viacom and Walt Disney as well as newspaper groups such as The New York Times and Dow Jones are all making digital expansion a priority.

High-speed internet connections have made possible use of the web as a real alternative source of information and entertainment. In addition, widespread use of social networking sites such as MySpace has increased the time younger people especially spend online. YouTube, a video-sharing site, has become a top online destinations in less than 18 months.

To read the rest click here to go the Financial Times.

Fox Takes Action to Lead Online News & Entertainment

2006-08-01T17:08:00.000-04:00

News Corporation today announced the formation of Fox Interactive Media (FIM), a new unit that will leverage the strength of Fox’s distinctive entertainment, news and sports brands across the Internet to offer a richer online experience to its millions of users.
Read the entire article here at NewsCorp.com

BBC Takes to Video Pod casts

2006-07-28T10:57:00.000-04:00

From the BBC

You can now watch a weekly video podcast - or vodcast - of the BBC's Ten O'clock News.

The latest service adds to the ways you can now access BBC News programmes.

The video podcast will be in addition to the other new services including a TV news summary which you'll be able to download to your mobile phone (if the phone is video-capable).

The new service, called The Ten Weekly, will have the best of the week's Ten O'clock news reports. Other video podcasts which are sometimes known as vodcasts - available include a service from Newsnight.

ESPN has Winning Idea! My -sports- Space!

2006-07-06T10:45:00.000-04:00

ESPN is looking to capitalize on the 'MySpace' type profile sites and create a site where sports fans can create their own online pages and identities.

This is a great idea. It ties in television (barely) and makes the most of the passion-dedicated sports fans have. After all these folks will buy cars and paint houses the colors of their favorite teams. They'll dress silly and act like nuts, all in the name of backing 'their' team.

It's a no-brainer that this will be huge.

Huge kudos to the person who thought of this at ESPN.

Read more here.

The Future is Embraced at KCRA

2006-06-22T16:25:00.000-04:00

This is from the Sacremento Bee newspaper:

Local TV news stations caught up in the Web race
By Sam McManis

At the stroke of noon last Friday, viewers wanting to catch Channel 3's midday newscast instead saw on their TV screens men in brightly colored shirts and slacks hitting golf balls.

Yes, the second round of the U.S. Open had pre-empted the news -- on TV, at least.

But that didn't mean newscaster Walt Gray was free to hit the links himself. There he sat at the "KCRA Experience" anchor desk at Arden Fair mall, flanked by meteorologist Dirk Verdoorn, delivering the news to an Internet-only audience on the station's Web site.

The opening banter:

Gray: "We're broadcasting live from noon to 1 today exclusively on the dot-com."

Verdoorn: "And I'm in for Eileen (Javora), and I'm feeling rather digital right now, Walt."

Gray: "Good to know."

This was a new experience at the "KCRA Experience." Channel 3 had been airing streaming video of its noon news for nearly a month, but last week was the first time in memory a local TV newscast aired sans the TV.

It most assuredly won't be the last, though. These days, the most important innovation in local news coverage has little to do with TV. Rather, the Web has become the new battleground for content, advertising dollars and scoops.

The competition is not just among local TV stations. The Bee's Web site, sacbee.com, began podcasting last August, introduced a continuous news desk in January, hosts Web chats with political columnist Dan Walters and this week launched 21Q, an entertainment blog. Several radio stations, including KFBK (1530 AM) and KXJZ (88.9 FM), offer podcasts of midday shows.
KCRA's move made sense, station president Elliott Troshinsky says, if you consulted the viewership chart from 2005 that he keeps on his desk. From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., more viewers view the station's Web site than the TV station.

Among local television stations, Channel 3 may be making the biggest Web push -- in addition to streaming its noon news live on the Web, KCRA is running four stand-alone webcasts throughout the day -- but it's not alone.

News10 is offering video news and weather updates several times daily to cell phone users, for a monthly fee. Since the fall, it has aired traffic webcasts with reporter Julie Durda. Channel 13 has run live, unedited and non-narrated streaming video of news conferences, such as a Modesto Police Department briefing on gang arrests last week.

All three stations -- plus Channel 31's morning show, "Good Day Sacramento" -- post video news and feature reports, in addition to hourly text updates on stories that broke earlier in the day.

The Web competition is becoming so fierce that stations have aired reports on the Web first, TV second -- essentially scooping themselves on big stories. "We don't see it as scooping ourselves," says Stacy Owen, News10's news director. "We're an information provider, and people's expectations are different now. People want things immediately, five minutes ago.

"We've seen it happen where we've broken a story online and other stations have picked it up for their (TV) broadcasts. But if you're too worried about the competition, you're ultimately not servicing your viewers and users."

What is prompting this shift in news-gathering priorities?

Simple: Increasingly, the Web is where the eyeballs -- and advertising dollars -- are.

Local TV stations are facing the same challenges that newspapers face: declining viewership and revenue due to the growth of the Internet as a news source.

In March, a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project showed that upward of 50?million people in the United States use the Internet daily as their primary news source. And a survey released in early June by Ball State University's Center for Media Design showed that the Web has overtaken TV as the dominant news medium during working hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

As a result, local TV stations' revenue fell 9?percent in 2005, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising. The Wall Street Journal reports that the auto industry, traditionally a staple of local TV advertising, cut its local TV ad budget by 15?percent and turned to the Web.

In addition, networks have started bypassing local stations and distributing prime-time programs directly to the consumer via video podcasts or Web links.

At Channel 3, however, ad revenue is up this year, according to Troshinsky, because of the push to expand online content among stations owned by Hearst-Argyle. "It's not a fad," Troshinsky says. "It's a paradigm change. Advertisers and viewers -- or users -- are looking for compelling content when they want it, where they want it."

Act Now and Survive!

2006-06-20T16:43:00.000-04:00

Do you ever find yourself wondering what Edward R. Murrow would think about how our industry has evolved since his trailblazing days? What I hear most often is that it used to be about the news but now it's about getting ratings or saving money.
Well, I hate to break the news to folks, but the reason journalists were set free on TV to start with was probably because someone somewhere had this thought: "Someday, not today but someday, this venture will generate revenue."

Sounds strangely familiar to anyone who was involved with web site development a decade ago or anyone who's talking about podcasting today.
I talk to news directors and general managers all over the country and they all say the same thing: "Podcasts are nice but if we can't get people to download them, they're not worth the investment in time or money." ("Someday, not today but someday, this venture will generate revenue.")

While some news directors and general managers believe that pod casts aren't worth the investment, entertainment is delivering a highly desired product to our target demographic, giving them movies, advance looks at entire TV episodes, and music. It adds up to a multi-billion dollar industry for "entertainment. "

Local TV news has a niche that will never go away. You are the place for local images of the news of the day. The challenge now is to deliver those highly desired images to places where people will watch. Websites and i-Pod type devices are the place for local news in the future.
Many TV stations have been creating audio pod casts for a while now. The downloads are few - it really turned out to be a great way for radio stations to tap into their product - but that's a whole other article.

Now technology has delivered into the people's hands a video i-Pod device. They can sign up to get updated, oops, almost said "news and entertainment" but there's not much news to get out there. Why is that?

Local TV holds its own future in its barely staffed on line news team. Only the Fox owned stations seem to get it. Others are going to have to respond quickly or your local Fox news will own the web in your local market like Idol owns the airwaves.

So, what does a local TV station need to do?

First, accept the fact that your on line news product is just as important as your on air product. Second, if it's just as important, then treat it like it is! Dedicate more than one person to it. Your local Fox owned news station is dedicating at least three, sometimes more.

So, break stories on the web! Put exclusive tape on the web! Be aggressive with your on line coverage. If you can make that happen, then you can capitalize on and succeed with video pod casting.

The only way to win with this new technology is to put visual content there that your viewers will find no place else. It has to be an "online exclusive" if you want people to watch. I hear the chorus from newsrooms everywhere now: "We don't have the people or the time to do that." Sorry to say, yes you do.

Make the time to find the technology - we developed some here at Inergi - to create your video pod casts. Once you have the technology in place, someone has to take the time to put the entire interview with the victim's mother or some other gripping interview or video on line. After all, you can't show the whole thing on the air; there's not enough time. But online you have all the time in the world to tell stories! Take advantage of that. You'll own the online audience, and someday soon it'll be a revenue generating venture.

The only question is whether your news product will be championed as the local news of the future... Or will it be your competition?

A whole lot of revenue (and thus jobs) depend on decisions and actions your team makes now. After all, I don't see many stations still doing the news like Mr. Murrow did.

By Kevin Osgood, 'Direct2Pod' April 5, 2005

"Hatcam" is Way of the Future

2006-06-20T16:40:00.000-04:00

From the Washintonian Online

Shortly after Steve Coll became managing editor of the Washington Post in 1998, he wrote a memo about the coming marriage of print and Internet journalism. He said that future reporters would be outfitted with video cameras, which could be attached to their hats, almost like the little press cards stuck in fedoras back in the old days.

In the newsroom, reporters laughed and called the futuristic reporting device “hatcam.”

No one’s laughing now: The Post is shipping digital video cameras to its bureaus. Post reporters are expected to report in multimedia.

Read the entire story here.

25 Stations Launch Streaming Video on Cell Phones

2006-06-20T16:32:00.000-04:00

From MediaWeek.com

Local news video is coming to mobile phones for the first time. A group of 25 TV stations, including 16 owned-and-operated CBS stations in top markets, and WRAL, Capitol Broadcasting Corp.’s CBS affiliate in Raleigh, N.C., have begun to offer video newscasts on phones through a new service called My Local TV. Created by CBC’s News Over Wireless unit, the service is available to Sprint Power Vision subscribers at $4.95 a month.

Read the entire story here

Our Industry is Changing Forever!

2006-06-20T16:27:00.000-04:00

From Washington Post.com

Some news organizations surely will die as the Internet disrupts and remakes the century-plus-old newspaper and half-century-old television industries. But overlooked in this massive transformation are some underlying insights that should give pause to those who would put a gravestone on the mainstream media.

News consumption has fractured and fragmented in the United States over the past 30 years, but the demand for news is strong. Network morning, evening and news magazine shows, cable news and public broadcasting audiences, combined with the explosion of growth in the digital media, are bathing consumers in more news and information than ever before.

While it's true that fewer newspapers roll off the presses than a generation ago, that only half as many people watch the nightly network news as did 25 years ago, and that news magazines do not carry the authority of the past, new sources of news abound. The Internet has largely replaced the immediacy of radio and television for breaking news.

Read the entire story here