News-Record.com

I've been checking the Hampton Roads site irregularly since it launched, and I'm glad to see the Times is getting into the game too. It's nice to see other newspapers trying different things to broaden their audiences. I hope we're not too far behind on this one, either.

I have to admit though, I don't like either the Pilot's or the Times' Web casts nearly as much as I do the one at The News Journal in Wilmington, Del.

To be fair The News Journal has about an 8-month jump on doing this and it does not have any T.V. news competition. But I really like how its twice-daily video reports are in that sort of old-fashioned, just-the-facts-ma'am concise nightly newscast format.

The TimesCast didn't seem too serious, but maybe that was just the birthday hat and noise-makers.

Jonathan,

I'll be checkin' out my old paper's exploits in person soon. What's funny to me is that they didn't have the chops to do it years ago. They've really progressed.

To do it, and do it right, here's my best advice from "The Hunt for Red October:"

Adm. Painter: What's his plan?
Jack Ryan: His plan?
Adm. Painter: Russians don't take a dump, son, without a plan.

Don't you think that this may affect the local TV stations? They are already lifting the morning newspaper for the evening shows (and its not just the AP stories).

But then you will need to start worrying about make-up, hair, clothing trades, and the EGO's.

I know in the BIG picture that both media systems (print and TV) must intermix and add technologies in order to effectively survive; but are you really READY?

The N&R has yet to really release info that was deleted for space - remember that the internet is infinite. Why show one photo from Page (HS), when on the internet, you can post thousands? Blogs are moving in the right direction as are SOME of the podcasts (Herb's for example). But you are still editing for space.

The pay-wall can be subscriber-based. Access code available in the daily paper or by separate subscription.

Just some thoughts.

Quite frankly, I think Norfolk and Roanoke are misallocating their resources. They're paying a little too much attention to the medium and not enough to filling a real need with that medium. Once the TV stations in Roanoke and the Tidewater get off their rumps and start moving, they'll trounce 'em easily.

histrion, I happen to agree with you, but there is an upside: They're also gaining experience in using what is, to them, a new medium. To me, the substance of the programming at this point is less important than that the staff learn for themselves the medium's and weaknesses and get hands-on experience while doing so.

The Roanoke experiment is extremely pointless, mainly because they don't have ANY video.

Sure, it IS video, but it's video for video sake. The video in it DOESN'T tell a story.

A person standing there and few still photos (that sort of zoom in and out or slide from right to left) are NOT video.

As for "gaining experience"-- video is not rocket surgery. If you really want to do video (with REAL video clips) just hire a TV producer for CHEAP! Why invest TONS of resources with no video resources to display to "learn" something that you could easily learn by just hiring someone when the right time comes.

This Roanoke thing actually might have the reverse affect: people see it, see how there is no point to watching "video" from a newspaper and no longer click on ANY of their "video."

If you're going to do video, make it compelling...

From a marketing stand point of view, not to many companies give away their hard earned work for free.

I don't get it, you produce newspapers, in order to get one I exchange money with you and am provided the service. However, I can go online and get it for FREE. No money exchanged. Is this a twist of Capitalism I'm unaware of.

Talk about the potential of cannabalizing your subscriber sales.

And now you think doing some video, or images, is gonna resolve the issue of dwindling subscribers that many newspapers are facing?

I think you guys are just grasping at things.

Somebodies gotta pay somewhere. Old crowd who likes to hear the rustle of paper is being replaced by a generation who doesn't read much paper.

Video? there's already a medium that does that stuff.

'If you're going to do video, make it compelling...'

Good advice, Jim. I encourage my print brethren to give video a go; the ease of today's technology makes it inevitable. But doing it well, under deadline, is not as easy as many in the newspaper business believe. Thus, I hereby offer my services, for a nominal fee. Otherwise, you'll find me here on the sidelines, watching intently and trying to muffle the occasional giggle.

Lens, I assure you we don't think it's easy. If we did, we'd have moved into it already. (I also figure you have to muffle the occasional giggle at stuff we do now, too. :))

Pointless??? Aargh, that hurts.

I'm Mike Riley, the editor in Roanoke who's responsible for the TimesCast experiment, and I'd like to drop in on your conversation. I appreciate your comments and feedback; that's exactly what we're looking for as we move forward.

To a couple of salient points:

We don't plan to worry too much about TV stations. What we're doing is not broadcast TV, and that's intentional. We don't wear makeup. We don't worry (too much) about wardrobe. We simply want to offer users an interactive feed of news and information online each day in a video platform.

We're learning every day, and that will help us evolve. I expect we'll use more video down the road, but right now we're working on an integrated model with the newsroom and are using the content that reporters and photographers are creating every day.

As for the business model, we've got to have one. So far advertisers have been enthusiastic. Heck, advertising is how we drive most of the revenues on the print side, and we hope that will be the case here.

If you look at our message board, available off the TimesCast, you'll get a sense of user reaction, which so far has been pretty positive.

What we're doing is an experiment, to be sure. Newspapers have long been averse to experimentation, but, given the imperatives of online, if we don't take innovative steps to shape our future, the future will shape us ... and I'd rather us have a say in what happens.

It's just like what John and the News & Record are doing with blogging, which has been leading the way in an industry that hasn't normally been very innovative.

If you'd like to continue this conversation, you may want to join our vlog at timescast.roanoke.com. I'll try to check back here at some point soon.