Seeing online video news for what it really is

In recent years, a priority for online news sites - particularly ones operated by newspapers - has been video. But just having video doesn't mean a your Web audience will grow significantly.

One of the reasons for the difficulty has been the print journalists' affinity for long-form storytelling. As a result, we've produced a lot of videos that would be best classified as features. A lot of good journalism happens this way, but the problem today is that it's not all about traditional newspaper journalism. The bottom line is audience size.

Some newspaper efforts in video have been so lackluster that many newspapers are cutting back on their video staffs because of financial pressures, according to an Associated Press study.

Part of the solution has to be what papers like the Miami Herald and The Roanoke Times are doing by emphasizing breaking news and sports. They have learned that those categories generate the most page views, writes Mallary Jean Tenore for the Poynter Institute. I saw video go through many stages while working at The Roanoke Times from 1997 to 2009. What I learned is that you try new things, then you try more new things until you start to really increase audience.

This doesn't mean newspaper Web sites should abandon good feature videos. But it does mean that newspaper sites ought to be putting more into breaking news and sports. This mindset is no different than the one at the afternoon news meeting when decisions about the next day's front page are based largely on what readers are most likely to read.

It's a simple question: What does the audience want the most?

When we know - or at least think we know - the next question is easily answered. Be sure to give them what they want the most. Then keep working hard at giving them everything else. That might just cause a significant boost to online traffic and revenue.

We have high hopes for video on our student news publication Web site at Cedarville, but it's not easy to start something new. Breaking news and sports will have to be big part of the equation as we make plans for video.