A Publish2 network
Tag-teaming a big story
Today was an interesting day for the newsroom at VenturaCountyStar.com. There was a shooting at a local junior high school involving two students. Two reporters and a photographer were dispatched as soon as the call came in. One of the reporters took a video camera.
For the text story, both reporters called story details as they became available. Within 45 minutes of getting to the scene, I was out the door to do a quick exchange of video tapes and sd cards (for the photographer). Within an hour of getting back to the office, our first video was online and generating an average of 1000+ hits per hour.
Before watching, know that the reporter, Adam Foxman, went through our in-house video training about 5 months ago.
Adam shot no more than 15 minutes worth of material before handing me the first tape. The video went up at 11:55 am PST.
At 4 pm, Adam returned with a second tape. This time he had recorded about 20 minutes of material. The update went live around 5:45 pm.
They aren't the prettiest videos online, but they aren't supposed to be. They are supposed to get the point across, quickly. And judging by the numbers, they did their job.
Had we not worked together on this, I'm positive the first video would not have been done in enough time to generate the kind of traffic it did.
For the text story, both reporters called story details as they became available. Within 45 minutes of getting to the scene, I was out the door to do a quick exchange of video tapes and sd cards (for the photographer). Within an hour of getting back to the office, our first video was online and generating an average of 1000+ hits per hour.
Before watching, know that the reporter, Adam Foxman, went through our in-house video training about 5 months ago.
Adam shot no more than 15 minutes worth of material before handing me the first tape. The video went up at 11:55 am PST.
At 4 pm, Adam returned with a second tape. This time he had recorded about 20 minutes of material. The update went live around 5:45 pm.
They aren't the prettiest videos online, but they aren't supposed to be. They are supposed to get the point across, quickly. And judging by the numbers, they did their job.
Had we not worked together on this, I'm positive the first video would not have been done in enough time to generate the kind of traffic it did.
Add a Comment
1 Comment
-
Comment by Mandy McCarthy on February 14, 2008 at 1:40am - Your laptop really earned its nickname of "The Grinder" on Tuesday. Both you and Adam did a fantastic job with the videos. I hope this is definitely something of the future with tag-teaming our major stories. Traffic is just insane on the videos and the stories from the past few days from the school shooting. Over 14,000 hits combined on both videos. Nearly 80,000 hits on the stories and slideshow. Major props goes to everyone involved with this story -I can't take much of the credit since I was just dealing with the comments/minor tweaks involving keeping the story updated and resisting the urge to want to curse at CNN and ABC7 for their premature reports of the victim's death.
About
Find out more
Badge
© 2009 Created by Ryan Sholin on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
You need to be a member of Wired Journalists to add comments!
Join this social network