The key to video: commitment and having fun Nov. 4, 2009
It’s a story heard in newsrooms around the nation: Your top editor wants you to do video.
Darnell Dickson, the sports editor at the Provo (Utah) Daily Herald, heard that message several years ago from his managing editor. Several years and hundreds of video clips later, Dickson and the Herald have become leaders in video production with limited staff resources.
At this week’s APSE West Region meeting, Dickson shared his keys for success. The ideas were intuitive and pragmatic, but also boiled down to a simple concept: Have fun.
Dickson showed video clips of BYU fans, a key readership demographic, getting to meet BYU quarterback Max Hall. The fans clearly loved the opportunity and it made for an enjoyable video clip.
And it wasn’t complicated. Yes, Dickson has the help of an on-staff videographer. But because the Daily Herald has a circulation of 35,000, he doesn’t always have the help and he or his staff of three reporters have to put together the video clips.
With a consumer-grade video camera and common editing software, Dickson and his staff have produced entertaining and short video clips to add value to the Daily Herald’s niche Web sites.
It doesn’t happen by magic. It took training to get the Daily Herald staff on board with video production. Dickson advises editors to get help from local colleges or university in providing the how-to knowledge many newspaper writers might be lacking. Not sure what the video should look like? Again, turn to the communications department at a local college. They can be a valuable resource.
Above all, be yourself and have fun, Dickson advised.
Newspapers provide content that ESPN, Sports Illustrated and other major nationwide news services can’t or won’t do. You’re not going to outdo an ESPN production, but your writers can have fun while providing commentary or analysis from the big game of the week.
Those are things you do in print anyway, so providing the video content can be a natural extension of what you’re already doing for your readers.
And, if it keeps the editor in chief happy, all the better
