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Small-town shops using video

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Gator, Jan 9, 2012.

  1. KWinMo

    KWinMo New Member

    I'm at a small paper (12,500 a day) and wanted to add some video to our website but knew we didn't have the resources for highlights. It's too labor intensive, and when we did try it, we rarely got the bump in web traffic to justify the time spent creating and editing the video.

    We wanted to add video, but we knew we needed a reason. We couldn't just add video for video's sake. So we came up with the idea of doing a player of the game for each game we staff. My reporters and I use a Flip video camera or iPhone to shoot a short video interview with the player of the game. It's adding very little work on the reporter because it's questions he or she already asking.

    We use iMovie to cut the awkward turning on the camera at the beginning and turning off the camera at the end. We add a title with the player's name and school and that's it. It takes about five minutes to import the video, a minute or two to make the cuts and another five minutes to share it and upload it to youtube.

    We add a refer in every print story to the player of the game video. Football videos were the most popular, with most getting around 100 to 150 hits, while some of the more popular reached into the 200s and 300s. Other sports have been hit and miss. Volleyball can get around 100 to 150, while cross country might get 50 or 60.

    We've also tried some other things with video. We did daily recaps during the four days of the high school basketball tourney the paper sponsors, and we got decent hits on it. One of the staff members and I just broke down the days' action for five or 10 minutes each day. We did very little editing -- small cut at the beginning, add titles, cut the end and add a screen at the end with our logo on it. Those took longer because it took longer to import them and share them, but we got decent hits on them. We probably will do something like that again when the high school basketball playoffs begin.

    This is just something that's worked for us. It isn't horribly labor intensive but it's given us a bump in web traffic. If you have any questions, I'd be happy trying to answer them. It's not high tech, but it works for us.

    -- Kevin Winters Morriss
    Sports editor, Southeast Missourian
    Our website with the video: semoball.com
     
  2. crimsonace

    crimsonace Well-Known Member

    Why not do live games?

    There are tons of webcasters trying to get going -- mine being one of them -- but we don't have the resources to do the ad sales, et al, to really make it profitable.

    Hire two local people/college students, someone who works cheap to do video, and have your existing ad staff sell it, and do a game of the week on Friday night.

    I've always championed this, but few people do it and do it right. I was approached about doing it, but as soon as the publisher used words like "cheap," I said "no thanks."
     
  3. SFIND

    SFIND Well-Known Member

    I know some state associations have limits on broadcasting live games. I believe in my state that it's "illegal" to do a live video broadcast, either online or on television. They have to be on delay after the event or on-demand. Obviously the association makes and exception is paid for Fox Sport do a game of the week on cable and things like that.

    My shop also has made us do games on audio live on our website. That isn't too hard, but having to screw with a soundboard, laptop, and mobile internet card at the same time during a game has given me plenty of headaches. That and having to arrive two hours early to set up and being the last one out of the gym.

    I think this is something some small papers could do if they could make a profit and, especially if the area lacks a radio station that broadcasts games. But still, it diverts reporters from games. We do basketball only (we have two full timers, including myself), so the entire sports dept. is at the same game one night a week. We can do it in basketball with games going on 2 or 3 other nights out of the week.

    Me and the other full timer also had to sell the ads for the audio streaming as well, as our ad dept. was too inept to sell "for radio." But that's another story...
     
  4. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    You know, I hadn't really considered video but this thread has convinced me.

    Starting next week, I will go ahead and add video to everything I cover. Sure, taking notes, keeping play by play, taking photos, writing the story, editing the story, laying out the story, choosing the photos to use, editing the photos, finishing pagination and sending the paper are important but I really feel like I could do more with my time. After all, who needs to breathe?

    Hell, I've got an even better idea. After I shoot, edit and upload the video, I'm going to drive down to where our papers get printed and see if they need someone to deliver them since, clearly, you have to be expected to do it all nowadays.
     
  5. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    If you aren't doing a podcast and photo slideshow, you're being lazy.
     
  6. Matt Stephens

    Matt Stephens Well-Known Member

    Not trying to sound rude, but have you tested your site in Google Chrome? There's a video module that won't go away, covering up the top left corner of the screen, making a lot of the key navigation impossible to access.
     
  7. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    How much ad revenue do you get with 300 hits? Any pre-roll or post-roll ads? Why do it if it doesn't cover costs?
     
  8. aztarheel

    aztarheel New Member

    My camera has video capabilities and occasionally I'll add video to my stories to spice things up. For instance last week, the game I covered went down to the wire. I knew I already had good art, so I took a chance and used video for the last 2-3 minutes. I got a decent clip of the winning basket, then the three-point attempt at the buzzer that barely missed. Put it on our Facebook page as well right after the game since that is what folks are talking about.

    It's like anything -- if it is done well, it can add to the reader's experience and make them want to come back for more. You can only do so much but sometimes I think we get stuck with the story-first mentality -- in the case of my game last week, those video clips told a lot of the story really well because it showed readers exactly what happened...
     
  9. murphyc

    murphyc Well-Known Member

    To me, you have to have a dedicated FT photog on staff to make it work. Some of the nice DSLRs now do decent video, so IF you have the resources that can be an option.
    My last shop was a small daily in Iowa. We were given crappy Canon video cameras and told to shoot video, in addition to doing all the tasks schiezainc mentioned. What a pointless joke, especially if you're at a big event TV stations are covering. Yeah, if I went to the big sporting event in town, the FIRST place I'm going to look for video of the event when I get home is the Podunk Press website. ::)
     
  10. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    That was pretty much our experience, too.
     
  11. schiezainc

    schiezainc Well-Known Member

    You just have to know that if you give ground on shooting video, it'll be something else they'll expect from you next.

    When I started, covering an event consisted of the following: Going to the event, keeping notes, doing interviews, writing the story.

    Now it's: Go to the event, take notes, take photos, keep track of photo IDs, keep running stats, do interviews, write the story, edit the story, lay out the story and the rest of the section.

    If my company had its way, we'd also be required to shoot video, edit the video, post it on our web site, tag it on our Facebook page while running full PBP on said page, write six sidebars that are web-exclusive, interview at last three athletes for the video, put it in the paper, call readers to make sure they liked it and if they didn't find out how to make it better, go out and find advertisers willing to sponsor the next video and put together a company-DVD of the highlights that we can sell readers/parents.

    The more you do, the more they'll expect you to do for the same--if not less--amount of money.
     
  12. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    Schiez, I couldn't have said that any better. I'm fighting that same battle. All the time.
     
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