Academic Neil Thurman recently presented research about online news video, at the ninth International Symposium on Online Journalism, reported Paidcontent:UK.

Although most large UK newspaper websites have delved into online news video, it has sometimes been a "bloody mess." Here's a selection of quotes and ideas gathered by paidcontent:UK:

- Mirror.co.uk editor Steve Purcell said "The promises that were made by [our content partner, Roo Media] didn't materialise.... It was a bloody mess, relying on American-led stuff."`
- Times Online editor Anne Spackman: "We didn't have a sense of ownership of the (Roo) player...When those early deals were done nobody knew what people would want to watch on a site like ours."
- For BBC News Interactive chief Pete Clifton: "Historically, we've put huge amounts of video on the site, and it's just really been what's been on the Ten O'clock News. At the moment, there are too many people here who are still very focused around the traditional outlets."
- According to Telegraph digital editor Edward Roussel: although podcasts "do quite well . . . video will win hands down against podcasts and audio . . . from a commercial point of view I don't think [they are] viable".

And as a last note about online video ads, Thurman concluded that they should be no longer than 15 seconds, due to the relatively short length of online news videos. The Sun's experiment with 30-second pre-roll adds seemed to drive viewers away.

"We've sold some, which no doubt affected the amount of people watching the video. They clicked off," said Sun Online assistant editor Marc Webber.

Source: paidcontent:UK