Newspapers have been recently emerging as strong contenders for TV awards, formerly dominated by traditional broadcast news organizations, even though most newspapers have only been using video on their Web sites for a few years.

The Detroit Free Press won the News and Documentary Emmy this year for a video news feature, "40 Years of 'Respect'", which looks at the history of Aretha Franklin's famous song and its significance for the people of Detroit.

Nancy Andrews, managing editor for digital media at the Free Press, commented on their success: "We start with the premise that we're storytellers, with strong visuals and a compelling story to begin with."

We wanted to be the very best, and decided if we're doing video, it's going to be Emmy Award-winning video. It's going to be excellent, it's not just going to be a video component," explained Andrews.

The Detroit Free Press has its multimedia team integrated into the newsroom, has made a considerable commitment to its video journalism efforts, with 25 people contributing to "Respect". Photographers have been learning to turn their specific expertise to video, and multimedia staff have "learned to hear the story in a different way, and pace and sequence it in a different way."

The Washington Post's website has raked in several awards. The Post's video output, however, is created by an online division which is kept separate and distinct from the traditional print newsroom.

Like the Detroit Free Press, it takes considerable pride in its video production. Tom Kennedy, managing editor for multimedia, explained that "We really wanted to create a narrative voice for our video that was different than that on the broadcast nightly news."

The site aims to generate pieces that resemble independent filmmaking and documentaries rather than traditional, reporter-driven broadcast journalism, such as its coverage for the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and its "Being a Black Man" series, both award-winning.

"We aim for subject-driven narrative, with interactions and dialogue that propel the arc of the narrative and create the throughline of story, and have it told in a natural, fly-on-the-wall way," Kennedy said.

Competing directly with television is difficult, he said, but "there is still room for experimentation that broadcast television can't afford." The key, according to Kennedy, is to find "a use for video as an aesthetic medium that can't be done in broadcast."

Source: TVWeek