editor on the verge

I continue to be amazed and frustrated by just how many newspapers refuse to recognize the value of social networks. It seems as if the daily newspapers in the state where I live, New Jersey, are either blind to these opportunities or are still under the belief that they are operating in a bygone era.

Let’s just look at YouTube, the popular video-sharing network. While news organizations including The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune all have a presence on the site, of the 16 daily newspapers in New Jersey, I could only find two (2) that have profiles on the site.

The Star Ledger (Newark, NJ) and the Jersey Journal (Jersey City, NJ) both have profiles with the Ledger operating a kind of user-generated content aggregator off their page (I should note that both are Advance Publications, so the YouTube presence could be part of a corporate initiative). Meanwhile many of the other daily newspapers, including The Record (Hackensack, NJ), the Daily Record (Morristown, NJ) and the Asbury Park Press (Neptune, NJ) shoot video and offer it on their own website, they don’t push it to YouTube or any other video sharing site.

I shake my head and wonder if these organizations realize the brand and audience development opportunities they are missing out on. I can think of no good reason for these newsrooms to shoot, edit and post video only on their own websites, thus limiting their online reach and canceling any viral effect.

Posting on YouTube or any of the other dozen or so video sharing sites exposes not just an individual video to a new and broader audience, but also exposes the work of the rest of the newspaper’s staff. Additionally, there is no reason why YouTube (or one of the other sites) can’t serve as an economical video hosting solution for these outlets. Why should they pay for a private company to host videos or worry about their own hardware and bandwidth issues, trying to host themselves?

I’m sure the editors of the remaining 14 newsrooms have a reason for why they don’t take advantage of any of the video-sharing sites; a reason for why they would reject a simple opportunity to grow audience; and even a reason for why they seemingly believe that their (outdated) approach is right and the rest of us (including yours truly) are wrong.

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