Miami Herald’s ‘What the 5!’ video show
Cory Bergman April 9th, 2007
Most people who work in TV still believe that newspaper sites are vastly inferior when it comes to video, yet most of the innovative online video efforts are showing up on paper sites, not TV sites. MiamiHerald.com’s What the 5! is a great example. It’s a daily web show and video podcast that covers the latest buzz, trends and watercooler stories in South Florida. And it’s very well done and quite entertaining (well, if you live in Miami). The hosts count down the top five stories, and the Flash player highlights the stories in sync along the left side, which link to the text stories on MiamiHerald.com.
What the 5! does a great job blending interactivity with viral content in a unique web experience that makes sense. All that’s missing is the ability to comment on the clips and embed the player elsewhere. Meanwhile, most TV sites just repackage what they produce on TV — short web newscasts, for example — and they risk losing valuable online video niches to innovative newspapers.
Adds Milton in comments: “Why do I want to sit through a linear presentation of two people talking — so I can click to read stories? I don’t disagree that this is slick and that the two people hosting it seem nice. But, this show is PREPRODUCED, REHEARSED, SCRIPTED and done several hours before it is posted. What about it makes me want to click on it? It’s like a short newscast without video and without news…”
8 Comments Add your own
1. Allen | April 9th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Very well designed site. Our local paper should watch and learn. It’s refreshing to see nice, clean, well lit video on a newspaper site. The local paper here looks like it was shot by a granny.
2. milton howard | April 9th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
This is actually a terrible concept. Very bad.
I respect you Cory, but this is bad on several levels:
1) It is two people talking. Talking heads.
2) They point you to click on other pieces of content (on the left) — NONE OF WHICH are actually video.
3) There is simply NO REASON this should be in a video format. None. It consists of two talking heads telling me to click on static stories, which I’ve already seen on the site.
4) Even the video of the two talking heads doesn’t make good use of the available STILL images. As the first story was being told by talking head #1 B-roll STILL IMAGES were in OTS — not even full screen. Why???
Why do I want to sit through a linear presentation of two people talking — so I can click to read stories?
I don’t disagree that this is slick and that the two people hosting it seem nice.
But, this show is PREPRODUCED, REHEARSED, SCRIPTED and done several hours before it is posted.
What about it makes me want to click on it?
It’s like a short news cast without video and without news.
Also, it is so short that I don’t get any sense of personality from the hosts. They feel very rushed.
This whole endeavor also was done by hiring FOUR PEOPLE in addition to the normal web staff. Yes, I know this to be actually true.
Of all the things that you could use FOUR employees to accomplish, something like this should be at the BOTTOM of the list.
Once you break down and actually watch this and try to figure out what EXACTLY about it is worthwhile, you realize there really is nothing.
Sorry… I but I mean this will total respect.
As newspapers gain the ability to create video, simply taking a camera and taping something is not good video.
3. milton howard | April 9th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
and, so I am not accused of just trashing this endeavor — although it totally deserves trashing — I will add some suggestions about what to do to make it SLIGHTLY better — although the concept itself is weak to start with.
1) Drop the OTS and do full screen video while the talking heads are talking
2) search Youtube for good local or regional (Florida) video clips, embed them in Herald pages and then point to those things — at least ONE a day — as the video of the day. easy VIDEO and you get the page view.
3) take one of the FOUR people who actually work on this and have them shoot some video so that the B-roll IS video
4) don’t script it! people are tired of scripted TV-like shows! we don’t need Ted Baxter with spiked hair-gel hair…
5) why not have the talent do each item together instead of cutting back and forth to single presentations? why can’t we have them talking together during their “countdown”?
6) take it out of a studio. do it outside or with a view of the Bay or ocean… this looks like it was filmed in a basement — but a slick basement. use the location — Miami — as a PART of the show!!!
4. milton howard | April 9th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
also, let’s please get full disclosure from the Herald about how many views each day this gets.
and, then, (this is the key) how many people then even end up clicking on the stories…
I guarantee you that about 4 newsrooms today (after reading the splash posting on LR) decided that they are going to plow headfirst into this wrong-headed idea….
and none are going to do it with ANY context of the staffing or the *potential* payoff..
and, we can only hope the Herald tells the truth — because they have never been known to embellish their web efforts.. no.. never…. the Herald? no…
5. Jim | April 9th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
This is a blatant, watered down rip off of Yahoo!’s “THE 9.”
6. invitedmedia | April 10th, 2007 at 5:16 am
me thinks miami harold casts a pretty wide net.
why fortlauderdale.com resolves to miami.com and also harold’s web channel leaves one to wonder.
7. Z | April 10th, 2007 at 8:37 am
If I could hire four people to work on my site, I could do more creative things, too. That’d increase my staff by 200%
8. Bryan Murley | April 10th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
actually, it’s a blatant rip off of Roanoke.com’s Timescast.
Leave a Comment
(Please keep URLs out of the comment body or the spam filter will block you.)Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed