Naples tackles TV
"Convergence" takes on new meaning in a new twice-daily Naples Daily News online news broadcast. It's more like TV news than either newspaper or website, and yet the journalistic values are more like newspaper than TV. Like most things N2 Task Force member Rob Curley and his team do, it deserves a close look.
N2 Task Force member Rob Curley and his pioneering gang at the Naples Daily News (E.W. Scripps) have launched another initiative that deserves close attention. This time it's a "vodcast" that's essentially a half-hour video news broadcast on the paper's website, complete with anchor, studio and sophisticated graphics and teasers. What's more, they've cut a deal with Comcast to air it on a local cable channel.
So you can watch it on your computer, your iPod, your Sony PSP, or even your TV set.
They call it Studio 55, and they post it at 4 and 6 p.m. daily. The first of its three segments -- the breaking news, basically -- changes in the second broadcast, but the other two segments stay the same.
They've been producing it for about three weeks with a dedicated staff of four, plus a fair amount of input -- onscreen and off -- from the website's news editors.
Comcast, for one, already wants more.
Porting to all those channels requires some interesting adjustments -- for example, the onscreen fonts have to be quite large, so you can read them on your little iPod screen. But to my eye, it all works quite well.
And then there's the journalism ... much different from local "bleed/lead" stuff. It's more, well, substantial, as one might expect from a newspaper. Especially the six-part series at 4 minutes per segment on the problem of affordable housing in Collier County. Could a new breed of video news emerge here?
They've sold a major sponsorship for the first year, so they're off and running in building a business model. Now, will it catch on? Will it develop a big online audience? A big download audience? A big cable-TV audience? All of the above, or none? They're promoting it everywhere they can -- even flying banners from airplanes over the Naples beaches.
It will be fascinating to see how it grows.
Comments
Stephen-
Thanks for your post, I was stoked to read it! My favorite part was about your take on our stories--our journalism. That is what matters most to me! I'm so excited to bring my editorial/photojournalism experience (though limited) to our broadcast and bring some depth to visual journalism content in southwest florida.
-garrett
Posted by: garrett | April 25, 2006 07:49 AM
Most interesting direction from Curley & Co. and not entirely surprising. The Comcast connection might be the best part of this. They have the distribution channel and need/want local content. This should drive some traffic and brand extension. Sustainability is the next question.
Bob
Posted by: Bob Kempf | June 21, 2006 05:47 PM
This sounds innovative and it is -- but a community newspaper where I served as publisher began airing its own 20-minute nightly newscast, complete with an anchor on a set, on the local cable system 5 years ago.
The Kentucky Standard, a tri-weekly paper in Bardstown, Ky., founded PLG-TV, a local origination channel, in the 1990s. In 2001, we began airing the newscast and it continues to this day. While not specifically branded as the newspaper's product, the newscast has always depended heavily on the newspaper's content since the TV operation has only one journalist -- the anchor himself. Newspaper reporters have always appeared frequently as local news experts on-camera and the paper's next issue was always heavily promoted during the newscast.
This is a very small market which is probably why we had such a hard time getting the attention of the national media organizations that cover journalism. We were doing something rather unique but it seemed like the journalists who cover journalism weren't terribly impressed. Finally, we sold the Louisville Courier-Journal on the idea and they published a front-page story about the operation back in 2003.
Posted by: David Greer | October 3, 2006 07:48 AM