Text is not Dead

I am posting what I will present on Monday evening. I had done quite a bit of my research earlier and posted it, so I apologize for the unavoidable repetition in summarizing my area of focus.

The importance of video on news websites, specifically hyperlocal ones.

News is a consumer product. There’s no way around that idea. Many have it to sell and others give it away for free, but it’s a commodity heavily traded on the Internet.

Video is key to selling that product.
• It increases page rank. If you’re not on Google, then where are you?
“Web videos…help to insure that [a] website will be seen by others. Most search engines now include web video in their evaluating of a websites value, which directly relates to the site’s search engine placement. Like photos, blogs, and text, web video now weighs in heavily when search engines decide how high in their placement to list a site.”

• It increases (sometimes doubles) the amount of time a person spends on a site. This is important because the attention span of a web user can be only minutes.

• It’s interactive. Unlike an advertisement that subjects a viewer to the video or add, a web video is a choice. When a person clicks to voluntarily view a video, he or she is already making a commitment. In my opinion a viewer is far less likely to stop viewing a reasonably timed video than he or she is to stop reading an article. Videos simply hold a person’s interest more. We’re a visual culture, and video has the advantage of being entertaining and visually appealing (unlike print).

• It’s easy. People have no time these days. Video is quick and easy to consume and easy to share with others. We have viral videos, not viral text.

• It’s expected. Major national news sites have been incorporating video for years, and they have only increased their use of it. When people view or read the news on the Internet, they expect a certain type of content and form. They may not expect CNN, but the more familiar they are with the site, the more comfortable they are, the more user friendly they feel it is, and the more likely they are to come back to it.

A note about user generated video (citizen journalism)

Joan Stewart writing for The Publicity Hound makes the point that user-generated video is growing in importance as news staff is being cut.

• It allows people who are witnessing breaking news to record it and send it to the news stations. With limited staff, journalists can be everywhere, and even if they could, they can’t travel at the speed of light. Sometimes the most accurate and up-to-the-date coverage comes from someone recording video with a cell phone.

• It opens the door for anyone to submit video, and it doesn’t have to be breaking news.

She quotes Jeff Crilley, a Texas reporter: “If you deliver powerful video on a slow-news day, you could be the lead story.” He recalls a story of a high school senior who was dying of cancer. People didn’t think he was going to live to see graduation, so the entire school held an impromptu graduation ceremony at her house. As student shot a video of the event and sent it to the TV station. The station aired it, and a “media frenzy” followed. The video aired nationwide. And, that TV station had it first.

A news website, even a hyperlocal one, or especially a hyperlocal one, would be crazy to not have video on its page. Video has the capability to grab people’s attention, inform them, move them, and make them want to come back to the page. And, a satisfied customer is one who returns over and over again to buy the product.