The intersection of video and newspapers

I found myself stuck in traffic on the capital beltway today, and tried to put the time to good use by listening to a podcast interview with Michael Rosenblum, an expert in the blurring lines between newspapers and video. Mr. Rosenblum teaches newspapers, journalists, and everyday citizens to shoot, edit, and upload their own video content to the web, thereby "democratizing" who delivers the news. His interview was fascinating and underscores the public's migration to web and video news content, the rise of citizen journalists, and the struggles of traditional newspapers to evolve in this new world. Any company that hopes to communicate effectively in the 21st century should carefully consider this phenomenon. To listen to the podcast in its entirety, click here.

Otherwise, here are few excerpts from Mr. Rosenblum's interview:

On the future of video news: "Everybody will be watching everything, but nobody will be watching something, if you understand the difference. I think we’re headed for a complete democratization of the medium, which is a very healthy thing.

"We live in a democratized world of print...We’ve lived in a world - we think we’ve lived in an information freedom. We’ve actually lived in the Soviet Union of video for the last seventy years; three channels, here’s the truth, we’ll tell you, you sit and...you take it. Now for the first time, millions and millions of people are going to get video cameras and begin to make content that’s going to be an explosion of content. It’s going to be very, very messy and very uncertain, but geez, that’s what a free press is all about. It’s about being messy. I think it’s a terrific thing."

On newspapers: "As newspapers rush to the Web - because they have to because they have no choice - and as technology rushes to the Web on the other side, video becomes a viable means for newspapers to tell their story. After all, the job of the newspaper is not to put out a piece of paper in black and white. It’s to go into a community, find information, process it, and deliver it back again...Newspapers have a distance to go. And I think that we can find historically that when new technologies come along, there’s almost a 20 or 30 year gap between the arrival of the technology and its application."

On television: "Television was such a narrow field because of the electromagnetic spectrum. You can only have three networks. That all you could broadcast through the air, that people like Walter Cronkite became almost overnight personalities...As we go to a Web, which has infinite number of outlets and infinite places to publish in video and now as well as in text. I think that we’re going to see the disappearance of these people."

On presidents who understood the power of video: "I think Clinton was quite good at television. Reagan was fantastic television. He was a terrific actor...In the business we call it the X Factor. You know they really know how to communicate with the camera. They understand that - I guess in talking to the lens they’re just talking to one person as opposed to making a speech. And there’s kind of a personal connection that you, the viewer, feel that he’s talking to me."

Newspapers decline, but don't cancel your subscription just yet

Nationwide newspaper circulation dropped a sharp 4.6% for the six months ending in September. This is the latest drop in a long and troublesome trend for newspapers as consumers migrate to electronic media (web, television, radio) for their news. Among the declines, The Atlanta Journal Constitution dropped 13.6%, The Plain Dealer of Cleveland dropped 7.8%, and The (Baltimore) Sun dropped 5.9%.

Conventional wisdom is that organizations must turn away from newspapers and embrace blogging, tweeting, plurking and other forms of new media. There is a considerable amount of truth to this. However, consider three caveats:

First, smaller market newspapers are increasing in circulation. For instance, circulation is up for The Wisconsin State Journal, The Macomb Daily of Mount Clemens, Mich., Florida's The Daily Sun of The Villages, The Times of Trenton, and The Citizen Tribune of Tennessee. Many consumers are dropping large, daily newspapers in exchange for smaller publications whose community-based coverage is more relevant to their daily lives.

Second, much of the news you see on TV and the web and hear on radio originated in your newspaper. As we have said before, walk in to your local radio or television station in the morning and you will see reporters and producers hunched over the local paper deciding what to cover that day.

Third, large segments of our population still rely on newspapers. Click here for a breakdown of where consumers go for their news, based on age, income, and other factors. Then ask yourself: where does my target audience get its news?

Let's be clear: the consumer migration from newspapers to new media sources is irreversible. Organizations must learn how to communicate with an increasingly wired audience. However, a smart organization also appreciates where its target audience gets its news today. Wherever your audience goes, so must your communications plan - even if it leads to the local paper.

Changing Times for America's Newspapers

If you needed more proof that newspapers are searching for their place in an online world, here a few recent announcements that should convince you.

First, more than 100 employees of The Washington Post accepted buyouts in May, including legends like David Broder, a national political correspondent and columnist, and Tony Kornheiser, a longtime fixture on the sports desk. Announcements like this are increasingly common in today’s newsrooms, as papers suffer from declining circulation and dwindling advertising revenue.

The newspaper industry suffered its lowest level of advertising revenue in 50 years last year, according to a March announcement from the Newspaper Association of America. Further, newspaper circulation declined 3.5% from last year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The Tribune company, which owns papers such as The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, and The (Baltimore) Sun, plans to cut 500 pages of news each week from its papers.

Despite the public’s transition to new sources of news, newspapers should generally remain a part of any company’s communications strategy. Much of the news we gather from the web, television, or talk radio originates in our morning newspaper. Walk in to your local TV station any given morning and you’ll see editors and reporters hunched over their local paper deciding which stories to cover that day. This complex relationship between print and electronic news cycles is one companies must appreciate if they are to communicate with the public effectively.