Including video into print journalism is a hot topic, and the attendees of the Digital News Affairs conference held on March 3 and 4 in Brussels believe that it is a revolution that will challenge traditional journalism techniques whether or not people accept it. Journalists from the European Journalism Center wrote an in-depth analysis of the different issues presented at the conference.

Michael Rosenblum, a video journalist pioneer, remarked in his keynote speech that technology is "irresistible and deadly" and "if you don't get the technology you will die."

"The moment Jacob Perkins invented the refrigerator, the ice business was over," he said. "And all the crying about the quality of 'real pond ice' wasn't going to change it. ... It was over in an instant."

One of the most pressing issues is finding the best means to integrate videos into existing news stories to serve both readers' and publishers' interests. But newspaper editors need to be sure that the videos don't imitate that of broadcasters.

In a presentation, Edward Roussel, a digital editor for the Telegraph Media Group, outlined strategies that make The Daily Telegraph one of the forerunners for implementing video onto its website:
- holding editors responsible for their section of the website
- financially compensating editors for a job well done
- assigning breaking news a "story owner" who plans, commissions, and monitors each story across all platforms
- a tight 4 hour schedule to handle breaking news

Though camera equipment and video-editing software are becoming cheaper and more available, print journalism will not die partly because of money-saving developments in the printing process, according to Reiner Mittelbach, CEO of IFRA.

He noted that "print-based companies do need to evolve into multi-pronged content providers" and that ""strategies must be interactive, converged, networked and personalized as consumption moves from push to pull."

Source: EJC through IFRA