Angela Grant points to a conversation going on at Howard Owens’ blog about whether newspapers need to jump into video now, or whether they have some time. It’s a good conversation, with Howard and Angela coming down on the need to get started and Julian from Trinetizen arguing that it’s only going to get cheaper and easier, so newspapers have some time.
Interestingly enough, I came upon this conversation after watching a video that gave me another idea for newspapers. Minnesota RollerGirls: 2007 Season Championship Bout, at the arts and culture blog Cool Hunting, is a great piece of video by Michael Tyburksi. It’s a nice five-minute piece: high quality both in looks and content.
The idea that prompted was this: newspapers that want to get quickly into video have at their disposal all those creative folk out in their communities already producing video stories. Finding them — and paying them for their work — serves the immediate need for good quality video. Letting them help train the newspaper shooters serves the longer term need. To do that, newspapers have to get over the idea that freelancers and stringers are “the second team,” of course, but it’s a quick, high-quality way to get video launched.
TAGS: NEWSPAPERS, VIDEO, FREELANCE
