Turning phones into e-readers and newspapers into history

The evolution of new media continues and implications for journalism abound.

I found this web site a few months back when judging some college newspaper web sites. It’s called Issuu.com and was being used, at least on the journalism sites, to post widgets on the news sites of the .pdf, page-turnable document versions of their college publications. I’ve since uploaded a few .pdfs of my own and found the process an easy and efficient way to publish your print publications. Readers can easily read the documents online, embed them on their own sites or print the .pdfs out and read them in paper form. And, did I mention? Issuu.com is free.

Now, Issuu.com is launching apps for the Google Android and Apple iPhone/iTouch phones. Again, technology is enhancing the reading experience for any digital publication on a hand-held device in a way that should make the distributors of the Amazon Kindle (and other e-reader devices) nervous. It should also serve as yet another red flag to newspaper publishers that their days of pushing out news on dead trees are numbered. Anyone holding on hopelessly to the idea that newspapers will be around in 10 years is dreaming.

The good news is publishers, editors, copy desks and reporters will have jobs (at least of few of us will) in this new media ecosystem. Take a look at the pagination of some of these digital editions and you’ll see that page design, typography, editing and quality reporting and writing are going to be necessary and valued skills in the years to come.

Business models aside, new organizational structures a must for newsrooms

Newsrooms of the future will have to restructure to address the realities of news production and dissemination.

Besides the hover chairs, teleportation pads, interactive video walls and augmented reality work stations, the newsroom of the future will operate much differently than the ones we have come to know and loath over the length of our careers. I have a vision of the future newsroom.

The future newsroom, and we can debate just how far into the future this will be, won’t be “converged”. No, it’ll just be multiplatform. Converged is a term for those of us who still seperate ourselves into a medium of choice, a luxury we can no longer afford BTW.

Broadcast, radio or newspapers will no longer be stand alone operations (no surprise there, right?). The future newsroom will be one seamless operation that will produce, curate and distribute it’s news content for multiple platforms.

Job titles such as social media editor, user-generated content editor and multimediographer will be the standard. Reporters will all be multimedia and social media literate without exception.

Future newsroom work flows will grow to accommodate the integration of user-generated content (YouTube Direct and Flickr are good examples of what I’m talking about here.) Future newsrooms will be well served to appoint an editor to solicit, curate and filter the valuable resources that can often be mined from the public.

Social media editors, a job popping up in a number of public and corporate institutions, will be a no brainer for the newsroom of the future. In some major news organizations, like BusinessWeek and NPR, this job is already a reality. It will be important for newsrooms to keep a finger on the pulse of real-time news, information and discourse on social media networks like Twitter. It will also fall on the social media editor to market new content to potential readers and engage them in discussions about the news. There may even be room for a little of the newsroom culture to seep out into the public via social media, similar to what Zappos.com has done. Zappos.com, an online shoe retailer, has made their Facebook page a place to interact with Zappos employees on completely off topic subject matter. Think that engaging consumers about their favorite Christmas song is a waste? Well, they’ve got the responses to prove that Facebook is a great place to generate public affection for their company and their retail operation. Newsrooms would be smart to examine this dynamic in action and adopt a similar strategy.

How we’ll be pubishing our newspapers/magazines in the future

I was checkin’ out Multimedia Shooter’s blog post about 10 Sports Related Multimedia Projects and found this. The Wonderfactory and Time, Inc. have come up with this demo of Sport Illustrated. Check it out and you’ll see what I think is the future of publishing. This is where multimedia reporting all comes together. I can’t imagine a reporter who doesn’t know how to shoot and edit video/photos working for future publications.

The Videographer/Photographer’s Gift Guide

Here’s my picks for the most excellent videography/photography toys out there this holiday season. If you’ve got a videographer or photographer on your Christmas list, check out these groovy gadgets:

1. Bose Around-Ear Headphones     $125.95
   These headphone wear like a dream and close you off from the world around. Whether your photographer or videographer is editing audio for a video project or just lost in a song, they’ll love this ear candy that only Bose can deliver.
   
   

   Headphones by Bose.

2. Cinemin Swivel mini projector    $299.99
   This portable mini projector will help your photographer or videographer show off his or her photos and videos anytime, anywhere. Hooks up easily to iPods, portable media devices and computers.
   
3. X-Rite Eye-One Display LT for Monitor Calibration   $119.95
   A proper color calibration device is a must for any photographer or videographer. You can’t edit video or photos and get the right color if your monitor color isn’t properly calibrated. Make sure your photographer or videographer has this piece of equipment.
   

   Eye-One Display LT by X-Rite.

4. SanDisk High Capacity/High Speed Compact Flash Cards     $145.99 (8GB)
   This is the flash card your photographer/videographer would buy for themselves if they got to pick it out. That’s because SanDisk’s capacity is exceeded by its write speed. That’s the speed at which the data writes to the card, important when snapping hundreds of photos in short periods of time. It’s also key in writing HD video efficiently, a feature of many new DSLR cameras. 8GB capacity with 30 megabytes per second write speed is FAST!
   

   SanDisk® Extreme® CompactFlash® Card.

5. 4GB Storm Trooper USB Drive   $34.99
   Okay, this one is just plain geeky gadget guy fun! Great for Star Wars fans who need to take their digitals photos and files with them on the go.
   

   4GB Storm Trooper USB Drive by Funko.

6. LaCie Portable Rugged Hard Disk   $84.99 (250GB)
   Nowadays it’s not a bad idea to have your data portable and LaCie makes a rugged little hard drive to meet the demanding needs of any photographer or videographer.
   

   LaCie Rugged Hard Disk, Design by Neil Poulton.

7. Gorillapod SLR-Zoom  $49.95
   Your photographer/videographer needs a good portable tripod for those adventurous hikes into the wilderness, be it the back woods or concrete jungle. Gorillapod for SLR-Zoom is a great tool to help them hold that shot steady when lugging around a proper tripod just won’t do.
   

   Gorillapod SLR-Zoom by Joby.

8. An Online Camera Store Gift Card (Adorama & B & H are my trusted online photo stores!)
   If you’re not sure what they’ve already got in their photography or video tool kit, you can’t go wrong with gift cards to Adorama Camera or B & H Photo Video online. Trusted, quality stores with excellent customer service.
   
9. Apple’s Magic Mouse wireless touch technology mouse  $69.99
   If your photographer or videographer is a Mac guy or gal, then they need the Apple Magic Mouse. It has the same touch technology as the iPhone or iPod Touch and allows you to trace your finger over the entire surface to scroll, swipe, etc. And, it’s wireless. Less desktop clutter!
   

   Magic Mouse by Apple.

10. PHOTOGRAPHY BOOK: Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography by Ferrell McCollough   $24.95
    There are a gazillion photography books I could recommend, but I’ll just mention this one. High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography is a new trend in photography. Why not give your old photographer a new trick!? Check out this guide to a new way of looking at photography.
    

    Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography by Ferrell McCollough.

Online editor acquiesced

Photo by Jeff Achen

Well, the frustrating reality of dismal online advertising revenue has forced my newspaper to eliminate its online editor job description. That means me.

Fortunately, it’s not a layoff, but a simple shift in job title. I’ll be integrated back into the print news operation to cover one of my community newspaper’s various beats. Most likely that means coverage of a community similar to my job description two years ago before being promoted to online editor.

The back story

I’ve always tried to push the multimedia envelope in my reporting, ever since starting as the Apple Valley editor/reporter at Thisweek Newspapers in 2005. We had no online editor at our paper in that time. But, I demonstrated a talent and interest in video and online in particular and in Jan. 2008 the then-president of my publishing company created an online editor position along with an online sales position as a sort of “experiement” to see if this new dynamic online duo could create multimedia content and related multimedia ad products to boost online revenue. It was an exciting time. We took our very lame web site and revamped it, adding more video, interactivity and improved design. Within the first year the sales person’s duties shifted, eventually to include some print advertising sales (sucked back in…) and before the year was up the sales position was eliminated. I continued to work on adding content to Thisweeklive.com, including the addition of audio podcasts in Spanish, Sports podcast, and TV show/Video podcast. I also pumped out at least one feature news video per week and worked to update the web site’s home page daily, something that was woefully lacking prior to me becoming online editor. I also lead a social media campaign to get our news out through Twitter (@Thisweekmn) and Facebook. I like to think my biggest contribution was simply being the point man for Thisweeklive.com. I think newspaper web sites need a point man (or woman) the same as any print edition has an editor. It’s someone to watch out for the paper, take ownership and make it his or her baby. Thisweeklive.com was my baby.

done

A teaser I created for the launch of Thisweeklive.com
in April 2008. Oh, I was so young, so full of hope…

It’s been a good run

Over the past two years, I’ve enjoyed the innovation and creative enterprise my superiors have allowed me. I’ve always been treated like a professional and nurtured in all my efforts. But, alas, the amount of money we make online remains the same as the day we started this “experiment” and the company president who appointed me has moved on. How long could I continue to goof off in my online office, creating videos and podcasts, posting daily stories and frequently asking for new cameras, software or audio recorders before they realized the online office was only producing news and not $$$? Well, they realized it and it’s a luxury this community newspaper has decided it cannot afford. Instead, we’ll beef up our coverage of business and try to spread the multimedia production out among the rest of the staff.

Though I won’t be online editor anymore, Thisweeklive.com remains committed to multimedia coverage of our communities and timely updates to our news web site. In fact, look for a redesign to debut this spring. I will also continue to host the TV show/video podcast. We’ll also maintain our Twitter and Facebook accounts. We hope our online audience will not see a difference in the online offerings with me “back in the newsroom” so to speak.

Lucky fellow

I’m lucky to still have my job and fortunate to be able to continue experimenting with multimedia. But, somehow this all feels like a hit to online journalism. My supervisors will tell me not to think of it that way. Maybe they’re right.

What do you think? Will online revenue ever support online journalism?

The revolution continues with YouTube Direct

YouTube gets it.

With the launch of YouTube Direct, it’s clear they now “get” online news video even better than most of us in the news industry. YouTube Direct is a new service that will help news organizations aggregate, solicit and take ownership (in a way) of citizen produced videos of newsworthy issues and events. I just hope news organizations don’t look—or overlook—this gift horse in the mouth.

This service will allow video producers, be they citizen journalists or average folks in your community, to upload their videos to YouTube THROUGH your site WITHOUT LEAVING YOUR WEB SITE! News organizations then review the videos and approve or reject them. Once approved, the video appears on your web site. Here are a few responses to questions about the use of YouTube Direct from their FAQ page:

“By submitting it through your site, the user may grant you a license to use the video according to a set of Terms of Service that you set forth, assuming it does not conflict with YouTube’s Terms of Service.”

“All of the videos submitted via YouTube Direct are stored and hosted by YouTube, and live on the user’s own YouTube channel.”

“You can choose how, when, and where to display videos on your own web domains. Inside the moderation panel, you can create playlists of video submissions, or you can embed individual videos into different story pages.”

“Because YouTube Direct is an open-source platform, you may integrate your own site registration process into this sign-in flow if you choose to.”

“To moderate the videos submitted via YouTube Direct, you will need a Google App Engine account. All of the moderation by your editors is done within the App Engine moderation panel interface. Learn more about how to get started with an App Engine account here: Getting Started Guide.”

Very cool.

Potentially, this will allow newsrooms with limited resources to tap into the vast community of video producers throughout their coverage areas. Think of it, an accident happens late on a Friday evening and a guy with his iPhone captures video of firefighters prying the driver free from his crumpled car with the jaws of life. No need to send a reporter. The guy can upload this footage to your news site.

Imagine, you write a story about a popular new sport at the local high school. Two days later you’ve got three or four video posts from parents or teens of last Friday’s game posted up alongside your story!

The possibilities are endless and very exciting.

Of course, YouTube Direct is a tool and must be applied properly, used effectively and not neglected in order for us to benefit fully from it. Don’t just install it on your site and wait for the videos to roll in. You’ll need to engage with the community to get them to fork over the videos. Through social networks encourage them to send in their videos. Seek out video producers already active on YouTube and ask them to contribute. Invite video submissions on your web site, in your print edition and through op/eds.

Check out http://www.youtube.com/direct and get on it!

That’s funny… but not.

INTERVIEW: VJ Movement Founder Thomas Loudon

VJ Movement (www.vjmovement.com) is an exciting new independent news organization based in Holland. The brainchild of Thomas Loudon and Arend Jan van den Beld, VJ Movement is a completely new model for sourcing, selecting, aggregating, distributing and presenting professional video journalism.

It’s not citizen journalism, but does rely heavily on input from readers/viewers/users.

It’s not traditional media, but does rely on professional video journalists.

It does not rely on the traditional newsroom bureaucracy, but it does have in place policies that guide story selection, ensure professional qualifications and drive excellence.

It launched it’s English version officially just last week, so it’s too soon to tell what kind of model this will or will not be for the rest of us, but I’m excited about it. So, I contacted Thomas Loudon in Holland Nov. 11 to chat about VJ Movement. Read our conversation below or listen by clicking on the video player:

done

Q: What is your background and what led you to create VJ Movement?

A: My experience as a Middle East correspondent is what started it all. I worked in Iran for 3 years. I was one of very few foreign correspondents based there.

Q: Who were you working for?

A: Working for several media, I was working for Dutch National Television, Dutch Magazine, but also I was contributing to other media like Channel News Asia or Radio France International, different thing, very different actually.

And, while I was working there I started realizing that the International news business is, well what shall I say, a bit strange in many ways. So … and then I moved on to Egypt after 3 years in Iran and there I was not in a country that is not seen as an enemy, but more as a friend by the west. And, there I started realizing that what you can and cannot do as a journalist also depends on that.

To give you an example, when I was working in Iran the Iranian regime would arrest Iranian students, opposition members, then I was sure to have a lot of work at least for one day and sometimes even two. Then I went to Egypt where the regime did exactly the same thing and nobody wanted the story. So that kind of experience makes you think about why, why is that? What is the difference exactly?

I started realizing that one of the reasons is that Iran is a regime that we expect to arrest students and to put them in jail and the Egyptian regime is a regime that we prefer to see as a friendly regime. That we are close to. So that was one of the reasons this was happening. And I had many of those experiences, different ways. I talked to many journalists there who had similar experiences many times in Iraq and Afghanistan for instance. I saw how different journalists with different backgrounds would report about a story very differently, even though they were going to the same story. And, we had discussions about that and I started realizing that the background of a journalist is also instrumental in determining the story that he’s going to do. So, all those experiences slowly, but surely led me to this idea that is now the VJ Movement.

Q: You’re talking about story selection though too? You said that people weren’t interested in some of the stories depending which country you were in. So you’re talking about editors and producers, right?

A: Yes, absolutely. I definitely had the experience that in many cases it’s the editors and producers at home who determine what is going to be in the news and what is not. And, in many cases the correspondents are left behind basically thinking this was relevant, we should have done this, but we didn’t. That happened on many occasions.

Q: So these are fellow journalists perpetuating some of these images of certain countries you’re talking about?

A: Oh yes, absolutely. I mean the media have a major role in perpetuating those images. I witnessed that first hand. It’s, easy is maybe not the right word, but it’s very tempting to portray a picture that fits the picture that we already know rather than giving a picture that is sort of strange to us about a country or situation.

Q: So your background has been in traditional media. Has it always been as a multimedia journalist as well?

A: Yes, I did work as a video journalists in Iran and Egypt and later in Jordan, but I was also writing and producing radio pieces and pieces for the Internet. So I was doing everything at the same time.

VJ Movement.com could be the future model for international video news reporting.

Q: Was this well before a lot of the multimedia spiked on the Internet in terms of online journalism? You just happened to be multimedia because you were doing stuff for radio, for TV and for other publications, is that right?

A: Well, I set out to do as much as possible as a freelancer, so to be able to do that. I had all the equipment I needed to be able to do it. And, while I was there I started getting requests from media to do multimedia things. At the time, this started at around 2000-2001. So yeah, that was growing and media still today we’re struggling with ways to cope with this. They want to be multimedia, but some parts of journalism production are very difficult to just start doing. Maybe the hardest one is video because it’s a skill, it’s a set of skills you don’t just have, you have to learn them.

The evolution of the news(paper)cast

CORRECTION: Texastribune.org is not a newspaper. It is a non-profit, nonpartisan public media organization. But, my point remains, we’re seeing some great innovation in the way non-broadcast media is using the concept of the newscast. – J.A.

The idea of a newspaper web cast is continuing to evolve, even amidst criticism, depleted or dried up cash flows, and the already over saturated web video/Youtube universe.

As I’ve watched newspapers across the country experiment with online video on their sites (and done some experimenting of my own) I’ve discerned several patterns or trends:

1. The newscast
   

   Minneapolis Star Tribune's "Newsbreak"

   

   Texastribune.org's video brief

   This is the attempt, however feible or fun, low or high tech, to replicate TV newscasts. The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Newsbreak is one example that has evolved over the past year or so. Most recently, they’ve decoupled their headlines segment from the interview part of the show. Their headlines are short and to the point and highlighthe biggest stories of the day. Some newspapers have opted for a less polished, Youtube-esque look to their newscasts that don’t presume to mimic TV. Take for example the newly redesigned Texastribune.org. They’ve got “video briefs” that look professional, reputable and are short and to the point. (My only complaint is lower third graphics with tiny fonts. They need to be bigger for the web).

2. The interview format
   

   Thisweeklive.com's "The Show"

   This is the direction we’ve gone at Thisweeklive.com, a page out of the cable access playbook with sit down style, long form interviews with local civic & political newsmakers. The Strib’s Newsbreak is also moving to this style with the notable exception that their interviews are conducted with staff reporters who talk in depth about a story or issue they’ve been covering.

3. The “news celebrity” newscast
   

   The Brooklyn Paper's Gersh Kuntzman

   

   The Star Ledger's Brian Donohue on "Ledgerlive"

   Another direction newspapers have gone is to place a newspaper staffer with personality, style or a flair for humor at the center of their web cast. The Brooklyn Paper is of the smaller newspapers to do this with “celebrity” editor Gersh Kuntzman. The Star Tribune has Jimmy Lileks. New Jersey’s Star Ledger has Brian Donohue who hosts LedgerLive.

4. Let TV do the heavy lifting
   
   

   SouthFlorida.com's "The Morning Show"

   And, of course, some newspapers just won’t settle for anything but the “real deal”. Take the Florida Sun-Sentinal, which draws in it’s parent company resources (The Tribune Company) to bring TV news and programming to their web site. Southflorida.com is apparently an edition of the Newspaper’s web site and contains content aired on WSFL-TV. Many other newspaper sites are partnering with TV stations to post weather casts and news directly from their TV affiliates.

It’s still hard to say which model is the best, most lucrative or successful at gaining viewership. There are clear advantages to each path. The newscast highlights top news and provides another medium through which to consume the newspaper’s content. The interview show offers a depth and transparency to reporting, but may only find niche audiences. The “news celebrity” approach draws of the charisma of news folks to present the news and information and drive the show forward. And, of course, having a TV affiliate means little to no work for the newspaper staff, and you get polished, familiar and high production value online video.

So, the question for many newspapers is still between developing a “show” they can package (weekly, daily, etc.) or simply using spot news or feature video as needed with stories. With the show format, viewers will come to demand portability (linkable, embeddable video) and subscription (RSS & iTunes feeds, reliable video hosting platforms such as Youtube and Blip.tv).

It’s clear however, that online video viewership is on the rise. Newspapers hoping to stay relevant will have to consider the direction they want to go with video or risk losing out on a burgeoning young video-savvy audience.

Magic mouse makes video editing a snap

Uh-oh it's Magic!

I picked up Apple’s new wireless “Magic Mouse“. I was sold on the same “finger swipe” technology of the iPod Touch/iPhone variety. It’s turned out to be a great purchase, especially when it comes to interfacing with Final Cut Pro and Photoshop.

The ability to swipe backward/forward and side to side helps me navigate through timelines, the media browser and scrub video in the viewer with even greater ease than the Mighty Mouse. Best of all, the smooth surface will always work whereas I’ve manage to gum up the track ball in my Mighty Mouse on more than one occasion due to moisture on my finger (and occasionally pizza sauce while *gasp* eating and working!)

It works pretty much the same as the Mighty Mouse by swiping left or right, up or down, except that much more effortlessly, responsively and accurately. I also like setting the Magic Mouse to “scroll with momentum” in the system preferences. This allows me to swipe fast across or along the mouse (or flick it) and the screen will move quickly and slowly drift to a stop. This makes navigating along a lengthy timeline extremely easy.

The Magic Mouse runs $69.99, but is well worth the investment for any video editor.