Opinion: Online news must "embrace" video

Posted by Rosemary D'Amour on November 12, 2008 at 10:32 AM

Video journalism pioneer Michael Rosenblum gave editors an option at the Society of Editor's conference: print publications "must have video" on their websites, or go out of business.

"As the web goes to video there's a sort of Gresham's law--more dynamic media drives out less dynamic media," Rosenblum said at the conference in Bristol.

The technology makes the process of creating video "incredibly simple," he said, and news websites that fail to adapt to the changing technology will be at the mercy of their competitors.

"A nine year-old can produce professional material," Rosenblum said. "And the cost is next to zero."

Although the industry is suffering financially, broadcast-quality video cameras, laptops, and video-editing software are all relatively cheap, Rosenblum reported. The cost of "hosting video" on news websites depends on the provider--he recommended Amazon. The payout for the technology should be considered an investment, as it would keep the industry alive.

Rosenblum, who has 20 years of experience "training reporters to become video journalists," warned that the print news business is in danger of "becoming as obsolete as the New England whalers of the 19th century." They failed to adapt to a changing industry

Saying that they are not in the "newspaper" business, Rosenblum reiterated that technology like the Internet changes the game of reporting the news.

"You are already in the business," he said. "But you have to remember the business you are in."

The move to embrace a new technology would take "courage," Rosenblum said, but the news business already has the resources to be successful--the contacts, the talent, the people and the experience which no new technology could provide.

Source: Press Gazette