At VON 2006, Caroline Little, CEO and Publisher, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, spoke of the role Web-video would play in online news, as well as the viral aspects of the new medium, as media converge to form a new style of storytelling.
How Has Online Video Changed Online News?
Murdok Inc. CEO Rich Ord relays his account of the insights offered by industry experts at the VON 2006 Conference.
“The vast majority of the buzz in the video world lately is the concept of viral distribution of video,” said Little. “Then there is the latest buzz on how web video can help market movies. ”
But what is most interesting to Little, and it makes sense considering her industry, is video news produced for the Web.
“We made an early bet with Internet video at the Washington Post,” she said. “We were the first news site to launch video podcasts and then ad-supported video podcasts.”
Little spoke of how publishers should consider multiple content delivery styles – short video podcasts; long-form videos, and photos, for example. She showed those attending a video focusing on the turmoil in Azerbaijan and how the Post used those three forms of media to convey the story.
“We found that Web-quality video costs much less than broadcast-quality in terms of equipment and facilities.”
One thing to note is that Web-video is always on, unlike its broadcast counterpoint.
During the question and answer portion of the presentation, Little was questioned about the impact the Internet was having on print news.
“I don’t think that newspapers are going to become extinct,” she said. “I see newspapers going into multiple areas – such as videos.”
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