Winning the (video) story
As of late, I’ve been thinking a lot about the best way for newspapers to compete with TV stations to win the big video stories of the day. When I started working with newspaper video, my goal was always to be first. Since the web offered an opportunity to upload a video at any time, I thought I could beat TV stations before their 5:00 and 6:00 deadlines. With the exception of breaking news stories, I soon learned that there’s not much of an appetite for the first story of the day compared to the best story of the day.
I don’t think newspapers can compete with the well-oiled TV machines at their own game. Instead, they can win the stories of the day by using their additional resources and context. The Knight Foundation’s Matt Thompson recently wrote five concrete steps toward improving the news. In the post, item number one said: “Don’t ‘win the morning.’ Win the story.” I think that mentality is the future of online video.
On Saturday, I covered the University of Minnesota’s first game in their new football stadium. The home opener took place around 6:00 PM with roughly six TV stations (including the Big Ten network), a couple online outlets and myself covering the video elements of the story. Each TV station had at least two videographers and one reporter covering the game and it finished around 9:00. During the post-game interviews, the TV crews stayed for the head coach’s press conference and then slowly started leaving to make deadline. The number of cameras in the room dropped from seven cameras to two (the guy live steaming and me).
The next day, I visited each station’s Web site to watch their coverage of the event. Here’s the best TV story that I could find online:
Did you notice how all the footage was shot before the game ever started? All of the TV stations had access to the field and could record the game, but they only had time to use a few of the big plays later in sports. So, what happened to all of that great footage that wasn’t ready for deadline? It sits on a shelf as part of history that most people will never see. To win this story, online news organizations need to consistently beat this style of story.
WCCO-TV did a nice job pulling together this nat sound story with game footage later in the broadcast. Also, here’s the story that StarTribune.com ran the next day:
Instead of running stories when they are suppose to run – newspapers can run stories when they’re ready. It becomes a whole new story when you hear from coaches and players at the 10:00 press conference, and see how the team actually did in their home opener. This online video environment provides an excellent opportunity to engage users in high-quality storytelling if organizations are willing to invest in the resources to make these stories possible.
UPDATE: Kare11 recently aired this story as part of their Extra segment a couple days after the stadium launch. Awesome to see a local TV station following up with a big story.
