editor on the verge » YouTube

How the newspaper industry squandered the writer’s strike

Yoni Greenbaum — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:00:13 +0000

I wonder if, during the height of the writer’s strike, newspapers missed out on an opportunity to reintroduce their printed products and/or websites to readers looking for alternatives to reruns and Reality TV? It just seems to me that, as more people were turning to their computers and/or picking up books, newspapers could have used the time to say, in effect, “Hey, remember us? We’re still here and look what we have for you!”

But instead, the big beneficiary of the strike has been online video sites. In December 2007, according to comScore:

77.6 million viewers watched 3.2 billion videos on YouTube.com (41.6 videos per viewer).

40.5 million viewers watched 334 million videos on MySpace.com (8.2 videos per viewer).

The average online video viewer consumed 72 videos.

“With the writer’s strike keeping new TV episodes from reaching the airwaves, viewers have been seeking alternatives for fresh content,” said comScore executive Erin Hunter, “It appears that online video is stepping in to help fill that void.”

Sound to me like that was an opportunity for newspapers, no?

Now, I’m not naive enough to believe that the approximately three-month-long strike by the members of the Writer’s Guild of America could have resulted in enough gains to heal all that ails the newspaper industry. But given the dire straits that many newspapers now find themselves, can they afford to pass on developing any new audience, be it online or in-print?

Can they?

Even for those newspapers who don’t produce video, the strike offered opportunities. For example, I came across this comment on the New York Times website:

“A funny thing happened while the writers were on strike. I started reading more. You all remember books, don’t you? I’m currently working on two books and have a nice list.”

And while that is anecdotal, the Omaha World-Herald reported:

The total number of books sold from Dec. 31, 2007, through Feb. 3, 2008, increased by 5 million, or 7 percent, compared with the same period the previous year, according to Nielsen BookScan.

Strong book sales are even more noteworthy because many retailers report that recession fears have dampened consumer spending.

“People are rediscovering how joyous it is to read,” said Pat Schroeder president of the Association of American Publishers.

Here was an opportunity to showcase what we as an industry naturally do so well. To show off our writing and visual talents, to share our knowledge and remind readers of our continued value. So what did we do? Well, as far as I can tell, absolutely nothing. We simply squandered an opportunity.

Perhaps, we were so caught up in in our own turmoil that we were unable to recognize the opportunity at hand. Or perhaps we just don’t have the fire to fight anymore and have resigned ourselves to our own collapse. While I certainly hope it’s not the latter, our performance doesn’t leave me feeling to confident.

No matter which rationale you choose to go with, I think we’ve reached that moment where as an industry we can’t afford to squander any opportunity no matter how small. Hopefully the next time one comes along, we’ll do a better job embracing it.

Obama video offers valuable lesson

Yoni Greenbaum — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:00:23 +0000

I’ve noticed that quite a few media/journalism bloggers have written posts about the will.i.am/Jesse Dylan produced Barack Obama music video. Bloggers from Jeff Jarvis to J.D. Lasica and Wendy Withers have posted the video and many cases written about it, mostly focusing on its political implications. While the politics of the video struck me as well, there was something else that stood out for me — a lesson for the newspaper industry.

When I viewed it for the first time I was struck; here was a great speech given by Obama after the New Hampshire primary and a musical performance by many artists that I liked, combined into a inspirational video. And the combination didn’t just work for me. According to the Viral Video Chart, since Feb 2. the video has been viewed 1,891,780 times and it is currently the number 1 ranked Viral Video.

To me, this was a powerful example of something that I think we in the newspaper industry are still struggling with. To me, the video was a great example of how both the message AND the medium are now both important. If you haven’t seen the video for yourself, take a moment and check it out:

If this was just an OK speech it wouldn’t have mattered how the video appeared and if it were a crappy video, that would have distracted from the message of the speech. To be as effective as it is, it needed to be both. And that is where I think the newspaper industry runs into trouble.

At too many newspapers, on too many websites, we worry more about the quality of the production and less about the quality of the content. And at still too many other newspapers and on too many other websites we worry more about the quality of the content and less about the production value. Thankfully, there are still other newspapers where they’ve managed to strike a happy medium and that is what I hope you take away from the Obama video.

Today newspapers need to focus on both. Perfection is not necessary, but balance is. Just keep reciting, it’s the message AND the medium, the message AND the medium.

Do you know where your newspaper is online? – UPDATED

Yoni Greenbaum — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:00:08 +0000

“If you build it, they will come,” goes the line from the popular Kevin Costner film “Field of Dreams.” Too often though, when it comes to online news operations, that line should read “if you don’t tell anyone you built it, will they still come?”

Increasingly newspaper websites are embracing social news/networking sites. You see the New York Times on YouTube, the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Twitter and the Mercury News on Facebook, just to name a few combinations. Some newsrooms would likely call these endeavors “experiments,” while others would say that they’re real “initiatives.”

All these efforts share one specific thing in common, none of them (as far as I can tell) are being publicized. Visit nytimes.com and you won’t find a link to their YouTube profile nor does the startribune.com tell you how to find them on Twitter. As opposed to what we do on blogs, with promotional links and buttons and badges, newspaper websites offer nothing. Why go through the effort of creating and populating these profiles and not tell anyone where you are?

Yes, people are finding newspaper’s profiles on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or MySpace, but in many cases they’re happening on them by accident — call it serendipity. But why make it this difficult? Why not tell people what sites you are on and how to find you?

So, what’s stopping your newspaper?

UPDATE: It is only fair for me to recognize one of my own newspapers at Ottaway which is addressing this issue. The Times Herald-Record promotes their YouTube profile from their multimedia page. They even use this great button:

Your identity and your videos

Yoni Greenbaum — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:00:43 +0000

You’ll have to forgive me if today’s post is a bit on the short side. We’ve got our Online Directors in for a conference this week and I’ve been focusing on analyzing the impact of social network content distribution and developing content plans for some other products. But with the time I have, I thought I would continue the focus on video content.

Previously, I’ve written about using YouTube and the site Hey!Spread to further the reach of your video content and grow your online audience. I think a video distribution plan needs to be a key part of any audience development plan. It is important to keep in mind that as your video reaches more video-sharing sites, it has a greater chance to lose the identification that comes from being associated with your site specific profile. What I mean, is that a video on YouTube appears on your profile page, along with your newspaper.com address and other information about your site. But when it appears in a widget or gets pulled onto another page, it no longer has that visible association with your profile.

One solution to this problem is to not post your video to video-sharing sites. The other, more realistic solution, is to make sure that your video is branded.

How many times have you watched a video on CNN or MSNBC and not seen any branding — no logos, no titles, nothing that tells you it’s from CNN? The answer is likely never. Similar to CNN, you should make sure that your video includes a title page that provides that name of the video, date, and possibly even the names of the photographer or reporter. During the video, consider using a logo or watermark, you know, like the peacock NBC uses in the lower right hand corner. And when the video ends, include a web address where the viewer can go to find more information or see other videos.

If you want, you can standardize this material so that your not remaking it every time. The title screen could simply say something along the lines of “A presentation of Newspaper.com.”

I encourage you to discuss and address this issue in your newsrooms, and if you’re not already branding your videos, start doing so.

Get free help with video distribution

Yoni Greenbaum — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:00:45 +0000

Since videos seem to be all the rage in newsrooms across the country, I thought I would share one of my favorite tips for getting your video out to the masses.

As many of us have learned, it is no longer enough to post your videos on your own site. In order to reach the most viewers and to grow your online brand, it is now important to get your video onto as many sites as possible. The shear growth of video sharing sites, beyond YouTube, makes that endeavor seem insurmountable.

As with any perceived online problem, someone has come up with a solution. Allow me to introduce you to Hey!Spread, a “video sneezer.”

Hey!Spread (which is free) allows you to upload your video, write a description, tags and select a category and with what amounts to be the click of button, have that video distributed to 17 different video sharing sites. You get YouTube, Blip.TV, Metacafe and Vimeo, plus sites like Facebook and MySpace to name a few. Once submitted, you’ll receive an email outlining which sites have received and accepted the video and what the link is.

Obviously in order to make this work, you need to have created accounts at all of these sites. Just like using Hey!Spread is an opportunity to easily disseminate your video work, a presence on sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Dailymotion is an opportunity to reach additional readers and showcase your other work. From your profile you can point people back to newspaper.com site. From your videos you can link to your articles and supporting stories.

With Hey!Spread, you can get your video onto 17 sites in the time it typically takes to post to just one. You still have the option to go to the individual sites and tweak your video description or headline and fine-tune your tags or if you want, you can just let it stand on its own.

This is a great opportunity to draw additional visitors to your newspaper’s site. And, like meta tags, there is no reason not to try it.

Top 25 Newspapers With a Presence on YouTube

Yoni Greenbaum — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:46:30 +0000

The following are the YouTube profiles for the top 25 newspapers that are on the site. The rankings are based data compiled by Nielsen Online and reported in Editor and Publisher:

Brand that YouTube page

Yoni Greenbaum — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 14:09:40 +0000

For some time large media organizations such as NBC, BET, the Washington Post and even Al Jazeera have been building online audience via a presence on YouTube. Smaller news organizations should take advantage of the gains association with this popular site offers.

Creating an account is free and easy, but don’t stop there. Before you start uploading videos take some time to brand your profile page. One word of caution, focusing too much attention on the question of quality can waste more time then it’s ultimately worth. For more on video quality, I’d recommend you check out this post from CrunchGear.com.

Ok, so what can you do with your profile page?

Firstly, I want to suggest that you switch your accounts from the default YouTuber to Director. This FREE change in what YouTube refers to as Channel Type will allow you to add custom items and logos on your Profile page. Basically it allows you to make your YouTube homepage consistent with your overall branding.

To make this switch, simply sign into YouTube and then go to the “Channel Info” section (http://www.youtube.com/my_profile) of your account and click on the “change channel type” link.

Don’t forget to press the Update Channel button before navigating away from the page otherwise your change won’t be registered.

Before running off, make sure that you have given your channel a title and description. This information is entered in the Channel Info page. Your description can be something as simple as RCA Record’s:

The latest videos from RCA Records!

If you want to promote all your products you can provide a description similar to that of the Universal Music Group:

Universal Music Group (UMG) Music Video Channel.

Universal Music Group consists of record labels Decca Music Group, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Geffen Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Philips, Polydor Records, Universal Music Latino, Universal Motown Records Group, Universal South Records and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world.

But leaving these fields blank will only serve to confuse visitors to your page.

This screen is also where you can include a link to your homepage or other portions of your site or even contest or event. For example if you visit the NBA’s YouTube page, you’ll see that they are currently looking for people to vote for the Fan Plays of the Year.

Channel Design allows you to customize the look and feel of your homepage in addition to delete or add the types of content visitors will see. At the very least, I would encourage all of you to upload your logos, make the color scheme visually consistent with your own sites and remove content options that might just clutter your page.

To get some ideas of how other sites are customizing their pages, check out some of these links.

You could even go so far as to apply for Partner status which would allow you to do something like what Al Jazeera English did on their page, and really get the most out of your background image.

Once you’re done designing your YouTube page, don’t forget to upload your videos.

Those are my thought, how are you using your YouTube page?

Note: This was originally written for our blog at Ottaway. I’ve expanded it for public consumption.