Upper management doesn’t understand that investment is needed and more importantly they don’t know what half of this stuff is. I doubt a lot of these folks know how to use there computer anyway.

there are a few sales people i’ve had the pleasure to speak with who realize the web is an entirely different product and should be SOLD AS SUCH. i’ve had the pleasure to talk with those who do not either.

ps. great comment, rob. very insightful.

From my perspective, all decisions for the most part were made up at the corporate mothership. When they wanted input, they did make an effort to get feedback from select people at the affiliate level, but most decisions were big picture decisions that took on a for-the-most-part cookie cutter approach to all locations regardless of market composition.

It was a bearable situation, however, because Belo backed up the top-down decision-making process with quality content shared across their entire network of sites. So, local innovation took a backseat but it was offset by local sites - including TV stations - having access to a wealth of newspaper content from across the nation.

Then they jumped the shark and decided, in presumably a cost-cutting move, to give local sites local control. New Media was blended into the local newsroom. Six years of cooperation and content sharing between websites became a thing of the past for the most part as the focus - brought on several years ago with the mandatory registration model - became one of sales driving content and not vice versa.

I jumped ship a year-and-a-half ago, but still have friends at Belo and found out through the grapevine that recently they got rid of their entire national-level content staff which was producing and pushing content out to their entire network.

I know the discussion started out as video at the local level, but how do you compete in a situation where local innovation - at least in my six years of experience there - played a secondary role to the corporate mandate? The people that are chomping at the bit to shake, rattle and roll are at the local level and find themselves frustrated, burned out and ignored by the corporate groupthink which has historically burned millions on really collossally dumb ideas (See: CueCat).

And when it comes to video on the web (or just the web in general for that matter), make no mistake, no matter the market size, there are still managers who consider it cannibalization of the legacy product (TV, radio) if a story appears on the web first. You’re not seeing more innovation on the web at the local level because of the cannibalization factor, the lack of understanding as to what should be the symbiotic relationship between legacy and new media, and the lack of training (getting people up to speed on how the web is a part of the newsroom and their role in updating the site), education (lack of new media journalism courses) and resources at the local level (people that can focus their time and attention on web updating, captial expenditures on equipment to help update websites) to grow out web properties and be successful.

it amazes me that these “corporate masters” haven’t even done the rudimentary; is the practice of linking your properties as elusive as lightning in a bottle?

no mention of terry heaton/nbc17’s blogger meetup in raleigh today @ noon today?

if you fly out now you still could make it!

just not jetblue.

Pretty much everything related to publishing video to the web can be automated, well, except for the shoots a story part.

Or the 20-something reporters who feel entitled to do that extra work after they’ve already done the story?

Create a utility that shoots a completed story, merged with script to the web sutomatically, or have one that breaks outs the story with anchor leads and tags from the actual newscast and you’ve got yourself some video.

Let’s face it… (Saf, I know you may disagree) News stations have to walk the line of journalism, which makes it diffifcult to take advantage of current trends with user generted content to its fullest potential. Stations are slowed down by their own filters and standards that must be vetting by layers of legal and discussion to determine if this fits within their goals/brand. After that, it’s who will do the work to get it up on the site, as though it takes buckets of people. In the pefect UGC world, it takes very little people on the station side, but with all the layers of indecision and fear it suddenly takes many people to moderate incoming submissions, then post manually.

Local TV had such an advantage that is suddenly not as important is it was 4-5 years ago… video production facilities. Newspaper didn’t have that, but now they don’t need it to get to ahead.

I also agree with the note above about producing video beyond news clips. People can get news anywhere. Make sure you provide them with the option, but for goodness sake give them something more relevant to the community you serve for your consumers than great pictures that mean nothing to me or my family.

As much as we post LR, if you had a chance at your station to really go for UGC, niche sites, real local video content that goes beyond traditional news… could you now? If not what is holding you back? Why not just do it? What are the real stop gaps, is it us, them, or all?

I have a friend who works for a local Fox affiliate and they keep their staff pretty lean and don’t pay too well (they’re not in a big market).

gotta protect the mothership ya know.

Well, get me the funding for more people, and I can do that. Until then, everyone in the station is used to put product on air, since that’s where the money is.

Or allow viewers to upload and share video.

First, you have to get past viewer apathy. In the last two snow storms, we asked people to send us video. We even linked to the various online editing sites and YouSendIt.com to get around the fact that we don’t yet have upload tools. Care to guess how many videos came in?

And we go look at the vaunted Motionbox product over in Phily’s NBC site, and you know what we see? The same videos that were there six months ago (Jia’s Summer Vacation 2006 is still considered a “recent” upload???). And that’s held up as a successful product?

Or allow their video to be embedded elsewhere.

Now that’s an area that hardly costs a damn thing or require more people, so I don’t know why we don’t do that.

Believe me, I’d like to see viewer video and original video. But if it doesn’t work out of the gate, the beancounters shake their heads and remember that the next time you have a great idea.