Top editor Randell Beck faced a "maelstrom'' after that Argus Leader editorial board meeting with Hillary Rodham Clinton, where she created headlines mentioning Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 assassination. The newspaper in Sioux Falls, S.D., did a great job: It quickly published video of her remarks, plus a transcript, drawing a surge of readers when the video spread to cable and broadcast TV."Visits were up nearly 40% from the previous month,'' Beck writes in yesterday's edition of the weekly News Watch, published by the News Department. "Unique visitors jumped nearly 160%. At last count, the video had generated more than 1.2 million viewed minutes."
Beck says he learned three big lessons from the experience: Streaming video works. Editors must be ready for a video to go viral. And the medium's transparency is a good thing.
Gander? It's Goose -- again
As we discussed the other day, News Watch could be a rich multimedia showcase for Gannett's best work -- an online classroom to discuss outstanding journalism. (I'm not afraid of competition!) For example, look at Beck's piece yesterday: He's writing all about a video, plus associated stories -- without News Watch providing so much as a single link, so readers could easily watch and read on their own. Hello! Linking and embedding aren't hard. Look what I've just done here:
(Confidential to Phil Currie: Little annoys the community newspapers more than Corporate's piling additional digital work on already overstretched newsrooms -- when you guys can't seem to use the most basic technology tools yourselves.)
[Image: this morning's Argus Leader, Newseum]
We would link to the video, but we'd have to make a coversheet for it first.
ReplyDeleteJim: From one blogger to another, what tools did you use to embed the Hillary video into your blog? It is terrific.
ReplyDeleteMaybe next they'll work on recognizing news and writing a story in a hurry, because they appeared to have completely missed the ramifications of what Clinton said at first and I didn't see any copy other than a few paragraphs on their website all day.
ReplyDeleteI used the embed code, available right on the video player's toolbar.
ReplyDelete