How much video? Part 1 – The 2007 boom
How much video? Part 2 – Figaro, from Handycam to in-house studio
How much video? Part 3 – Nouvel Obs: TV-like shows, with an edge – a year in retrospect
 
Figaro.fr is now the second French news site, with 2.7 million unique visitors both in September and October. Digital revenues will amount to 13% of the group’s total revenues in 2007. Read more here about the Figaro's digital acquisition strategy.

Video was born of what he calls a double vision that came both from the online edition and the media group as a whole.

From the group’s point of view, the realization is that “the job of the Figaro is changing,” said Gié. The Figaro is not only a newspaper anymore: like many others it is becoming a media group whose purpose is to deliver a variety of content when, where and how the user wants it. With the rise of an image-based culture in general (more pictures in advertising, movies, online) “there was no reason not to have video.”

For Figaro.fr, the choice to develop video was more audience-related. The goal is to create a news site that aggregates even more content, and video is sometimes the most adequate distribution platform for content. In a recent story about upheaval in the Parisian suburb of Villiers-LeBel, Figaro.fr posted an amateur video that contradicted the official version given by the police. See here for an article that heavily relies on video. However, the homepage doesn't yet put much emphasis on the new medium.

Video on Figaro.fr currently either consists of footage lifted off the Web and properly sourced, or the basic short-format video interview of a journalist speaking about a well-known topic. The paper also uses video to proceed to short videojournalism interviews with politicians, or specific events, such as during Fashion Week. A seemingly banal clip about former President Jacques Chirac moving out of the Elysée was actually reused by the broadcast network France Télévisions and bought by German broadcaster ARD.

Video accounts for a relatively small share of total traffic: a few thousand of the 600-700,000 daily views on the site. Yet considering the long tail of videos, the audience slowly builds up. Nearly 2 million viewers have watched Figaro videos posted on video-sharing site Daily Motion. And Figaro’s competition remains general news sites, which are just beginning to deal with video. This seems to be commonly accepted wisdom: there’s no point in newspapers trying to rival with much wealthier broadcast specialists.

Many Figaro journalists are getting used to grabbing a camera to cover their stories, after going through basic video training (through an external firm). These handheld devices are made available, but journalists aren’t forced to learn how to use them. Any video assignments are based on their initiative.

So “the idea came naturally” to build a video studio, which would make in-house video extend beyond basic Q&As with journalists. The investment was significant, about €300,000 overall. 4 fixed, broadcast-quality cameras were purchased. This will enable the Figaro to potentially broadcast on the public television network and be up to those standards (if content is for example redistributed to foreign television news channels).

2 fulltime staffers will work for the studio. The video editing and encoding is and will be done in-house. The studio was built at a central location in the Figaro building, next to the cafeteria, to give all staffers a sense of ownership of this new platform. Photo-booth like installations will also be set up in the main newsroom, a floor above, so journalists can ‘interview themselves’ from there, in literally two minutes.

Importantly, the goal of the studio is clearly not to generate revenue – at least not in any foreseeable future. However, Gié mentions it would eventually be preferable for the newspaper to have its own video platform. It currently has neutrally financial deals with video sharing site Daily Motion. These newspaper-platform partnerships have worked so far because they are based on a seeming equilibrium (the newspaper provides free content, the platform offers a hands-on technical solution and visibility to the news outlet’s content). But the inclusion of advertising billboards on the platform’s site could end this equilibrium…

While the programs haven’t been decided upon yet, these will include one-on-one interviews, weekly debates, probably a show about fashion. The lighting of the studio will be color-coded depending on whether a show is for the paper or for one of the Figaro's commercial activities. Could there even be user-generated video shows?

“Everything is possible,” said Gié, and “we’ll have to learn by walking.”

In Part 3, we’ll take a look at the workflows, the choice of offerings, as well as the costs of video equipment for Le Nouvel Observateur, which has had an up-and-running studio for a year.

Source: Bertrand Gié, head of new media at the Figaro