I actually drafted a long response to this guy that got eaten by the interwebs when I clicked submit. I think it's an easy stance to take when your newsroom handed video cameras to a bunch of people without much thought or planning and then sat back and expected their site to explode like YouTube.
This guy's piece is built more on anecdotes and personal taste than an actual examination of what works and what doesn't. The enterprise, long-term projects are great, but on our site they don't get viewership proportional to the work invested in creating them.
We've had plenty of "everyday videojournalism" that was done well on topics that interest our local audience that has had great viewership.
Yes, newspapers should give up "feeble attempts" at video, but I would argue that they should give up on anything that is a "feeble attempt."
I hate it as well when typing a long response and it gets killed when you hit submit.
Here's the short film Eric referenced: http://vimeo.com/29991931
I'll write up some more tonight when I (hopefully) have time. It was produced in four days with a single D7000 for a film competition here in New London, CT.
Awesome thanks for that link! I will check it out this weekend and look forward to reading what you post when you have time.
It seems most newspaper editors are seeking replacement revenue and one tool for that can be video. But that is short-sighted, desperate and flies in the face of what newspapers really stand for—the first draft of history, the depth and context that broadcast sometimes lacks. You Tubeization is like comparing America's Funniest Home Videos to Frontline. Popular and entertaining to insightful and sophisticated. Length isn't the issue, story-telling values are, as Eric said. But his other key point is marketing and promotion of the work. I suggested making movie trailers for local theaters years ago. The idea fell flat. Now the NYT is doing it. Homepages that have proper display for the best visual of the day and special reports pages where content can be displayed with proper design, just like we strive for in print, is also essential. I still run into people who wonder why I shoot video when I say I'm from The Oregonian. They don't know that we have been doing it for over five years. But when people do know, the well-done project stories have a long life. I got a comment last week via You Tube on a piece I did almost 3 years ago. But the metrics often only look at short-term views. MediaStrom suggests looking at project work after a year to see its value.
Very interesting take on video on newspaper websites that someone had posted on Facebook.