(Steve Duke)

The questions of the moment for a lot of newspaper online editors seem to be about video:

• What do readers want?
• How much should we do?
• Is it worth the effort?
• What if we don't have the skills to do it well?

There's a sense that "everybody is doing it, so we'd better, too," just as there is with some newspaper attempts at blogging, but no clues as to what to do. To answer the questions, we have to ask another: What will readers value?

Let's start with the online experiences that motivate or inhibit readers' usage of your Web site. Here are some of the positive experiences we found:

• Entertains and absorbs me
• My personal timeout
• Touches me and expands my views
• Worth saving and sharing
• Makes me smarter
• Connects me with others
• Gives me something to talk about
• Looks out for people like me

If you're having trouble wrapping your head around the idea of experience (although we strongly urge you to try), think about what would be compelling, what appeals to reader self-interest, and what stories or parts of stories are better told using video than text. The answers will probably bring you back to positive online experiences, anyway.

So what kind of video drives the experiences listed above? Certainly not footage from last night's council meeting. Instead, let's consider these examples.

My local newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, recently reported in its pages the sad story of a mother who tried to beat a train to a crossing and lost. She and two of her children were killed, and her two other children were hospitalized. I, like others, read stories like this and wonder how they could have happened. A day or two after the original story broke, transportation authorities released video of the incident that was recorded on the security cameras in the train station parking lot. (This version is from YouTube; the Tribune version is apparently no longer on their site.)

This video is grainy and taken from a distant angle, but it sure is compelling. It makes the incident clear in ways that text couldn't. For example, the mother wasn't driving straight toward a crossing at a 90-degree angle to the tracks, she was running parallel with the train, literally racing it.

I would never call this video entertaining, but it definitely is absorbing. It gives me something to talk about - and I have been talking about it with many people for more than a month. I've saved it, and shared the link with many people. I've just listed at least three important online experiences that this video tapped into.

Of course, you can't simply wait for newsmakers to drop compelling video like this into your lap. You've got to create some of it yourself. So here are some other examples.

Americans are increasingly concerned about environmental issues, and newspapers are giving the issues more coverage, but often struggling to make them local, tangible and actionable. The Nashville Tennessean told a local story on its Web site using a little bit of Flash, some still photos, text and simple video.

The strong local report examines the condition of the Harpeth River, which winds through the area. The video is done by a reporter with a hand-held camera in a canoe. It lacks the high production values of TV, and is all the more compelling because of that. Experiences? The interactive nature of the Flash map makes it absorbing. It looks out for people who live in Nashville in the best traditions of watchdog journalism. It probably makes some of them smarter, and expands their views. For many, it provides something to talk about.

Dana Robbins, now publisher of The Record in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, said when he was editor of The Hamilton Spectator that he wasn't afraid of the Web, but that his TV news competitors should be. He had 10 times the feet on the street that local TV newsrooms did, so he was diving into video storytelling.

As computers and television merge as appliances, Dana's perception can become palpably true. With greater resources, and the ability to put video where people are used to viewing it, newspapers could take on TV news operations in ways that could be crushing.

Some newspapers are starting to position themselves for that future. One example is The News Journal in Wilmington, DE. Every morning in the upper right corner of the paper's Web site, DelawareOnline, readers find a two- to three-minute, professional quality newscast, including weather, sports and the day's top stories. So, if you're a Wilmingtonian with habits like mine and check your local news site while you're waiting for the coffee to brew, you get a morning newscast and all the text and photos that a newspaper site offers. (The newscast is updated in the afternoon, but moves lower on the page. Scroll down to find the "Videos on Demand" box.)

Don't bury TV yet, however, because opportunity cuts both ways on the Web. In every town in America, prep sports coverage has been the local newspaper's franchise. Hearst-Argyle Television is threatening that. The company that owns 26 television stations recently launched High School Playbook in seven of its markets. The localized sites have scores, game stats and user-generated photos. But the Web sites also provide high definition hand-held video cameras to high school students who serve as "sideline reporters" at games and post "play of the day" videos. There is a "Battle of the Bands," school spirit contests, and social networking capabilities with groups and discussion boards.

Spend some time on one of the sites, such as WXII's, then refer back to the bulleted list of experiences mentioned above and tick off all that this site drives for parents and students in that market.

There's business to be done here, too. Hearst-Argyle said that some of its markets have booked "hundreds of thousands of dollars&" in ad contracts - before the sites have been launched.

Hearst-Argyle isn't stopping after it rolls out High School Playbook at its 26 stations. It plans to license the format to every other TV station in the country that wants it. So if you haven't figured out a coverage area that would benefit from video, this is one.

The New York Times offers my favorite examples of videos that have value for readers, videos that tap into online experiences. If you haven't seen what David Pogue is doing, start with him. Pogue is the Times' consumer technology columnist. He supplements his print columns with Web videos. View my all-time favorite, iPhone: the Musical for its brash, break-all-the-rules approach to journalism. It does everything a good column does, covering the pros and cons of the device, the hype, the silliness, but it is entertaining and absorbing in ways journalists rarely let themselves engage in. Or try The iPhone Challenge: Keep It Quiet, also by Pogue.

I've been looking at iPhone: the Musical since it was published in July, and a couple weeks ago for the first time it opened with a 30-second pre-roll ad by BP, indicating that the video has a long tail, enabling the Times to monetize it. (After a couple weeks, the BP ad seems to have been rotated to other Times' videos. It's gone from the Pogue piece today, but opened a travel piece by Joe Sharkey with an equally long tail.)

For something more utilitarian and straight-forward, there's Times' food columnist Mark Bittman. His videos amount to mini cooking shows in which he demonstrates the recipes from his print column, The Minimalist. Here's one on salsa. Or this one, which is more of a reporting piece than a pure demonstration. These pieces are entertaining, make me smarter about something I care about, give me things to talk about with similarly minded people.

Bottom line: Video is part of the Web, and you need to be there. Be smart about it by putting your energies into stories best told through video, in ways that drive important online experiences.


By Steve Duke (s-duke@northwestern.edu)
Steve Duke is managing director for training at the Media Management Center and Readership Institute, and an associate professor at Medill.