In less than two years, The Oklahoman went from producing very few online videos to producing more than 100 original pieces each week.
The newspaper has even been able to lure away some people from local television.
Although The Oklahoman is challenging the local TV news outlets, the newspaper is not trying to turn itself into one. “We’re not trying to emulate TV. To me, that’s very important that we try to do things our way,” says Kelly Fry, vice president of news & information.
Doing it their way includes producing more human-interest stories and two- to three-minute videos. “We didn’t want to take on the newscast format,” says Scott Horton, creative director of audience development. “That’s the beauty of the Web is that we can go a little bit deeper.”
Shooting, Editing and Publishing
The newspaper, which is privately owned, started construction of two sets in the summer of 2006 – one for video, one for audio podcasting. Those studios were up and running in April 2007. In July of that year, the newspaper started building two more, larger studios. The first videos from those studios hit the Web in January of this year.
The newsroom’s studios are on the seventh floor of The Oklahoman’s building. The floor previously housed the composing department in the 1990s. The desktop publishing boom effectively emptied out one-half of the floor, which the video department took over in 2006. Some administrators and the scanning department were still sharing the floor then; those employees moved elsewhere when the video department grew and asked to take over the entire floor.
Although building the four newsroom studios was certainly not cheap, Horton says the first two small studios cost less than $100,000 to build and equip. The other studios cost more. Oklahoma Publishing Co. (Opubco) had carpenters and electricians on its own payrolls already, which saved money on hiring contractors. The process included tearing out walls, moving air conditioning systems and removing the ceiling, among other major projects.
“It’s a high-def, fully-equipped studio, just like a TV studio with sets that move around and lighting and grids and the whole nine yards,” Fry says. (To learn more about building a video set, see “Live from the Newsroom: Set Building 101”.)
Even with hired carpenters and electricians, however, building and equipping the sets was a big job. “Collectively… there were probably about 15 people on staff here who were very instrumental in pulling this off,” Horton says.
The Oklahoman decided to invest in high-definition equipment “mainly for the possibility of some of our stuff making it on broadcast segments or shows in the future,” Horton says. “We may produce a two- or three-minute segment that may end up on the local PBS station, so we want to make sure anything we produce is HD-ready.”
In addition to shooting video from the newsroom sets, the video staff has a switcher that allows them to run video cables to other studios in the building. They have used this technology to film food-related videos in the studio green room, for example.
Fry says the newspaper has “dabbled” in live streaming video, but she believes traffic is stronger for on-demand video viewing. “We’re not trying to cover every house fire the way TV does,” Fry says. “We have that, but our focus is more on conversations with people.”
Hiring and Training
“We did not feel like we had the level of background, training and expertise, so we hired people who could bring that to us,” Fry says. The company lured people away from a local university, television stations and elsewhere. Opubco now has video show anchors they are marketing as personalities. In addition to having photographers and reporters shoot video, the company has a separate, dedicated video staff to produce in-studio shows and cover events such as press conferences.
Some of the talent behind The Oklahoman’s Web video did come from the print newspaper staff, including reporters who turned out to be quite good on camera.
“I think if newspapers will stop and look within their newsrooms, they’ll find great talent they never knew they even had,” Horton says.
The excitement about online video has caught on in the newsroom, Fry says. “I think people are aware of everything going on in the industry, and people here in the NIC (News and Information Center) are mostly stepping up and saying, ‘What can I do to help?’ The support and enthusiasm has been really rewarding.”
That’s not to say the process of incorporating video was easy. Fry says there was a lot of trial and error in the beginning.
In addition, many reporters were nervous about appearing on camera. The fear is relatively easy to overcome when the video staff reminds reporters that they are not live and it’s easy to do another take, Horton says.
“We’re not telling reporters that that video is taking over print or that it’s more important, but we’re trying to tell them that it’s another avenue to tell their story,” says Senior Producer David Jones.
The newspaper is focusing its training first on the early adopters – reporters who have expressed interest in doing video, Jones said. Their training incorporates some technical elements, but focuses more on teaching reporters how to think visually. “We’re also providing them with a really simple survival guide of how you go out and do video.”
The photography staff has been instrumental in shooting and editing video, Jones said. Frequently, a reporter who is first starting to embrace video will have a photographer or videographer with them at the story to assist and give advice. In addition, the company’s hired videographers and editors have helped immensely.
Much of the ongoing video training is done through day-to-day and one-on-one coaching. The newspaper is slowly increasing the quality of videos and making them look more consistent, which will help attract more advertisers.
Advertising
“We’re ahead more on the content delivery than on the sales piece,” Fry says. The newspaper’s sales staff is selling pre-roll advertising. They are working on adding lower-thirds, sponsorships and post-rolls to the advertising roster. They are also shooting some commercials. The dedicated video staff is “department agnostic” and shoots for editorial, advertising and marketing.
So far, pre-roll advertising has been the most successful for the newspaper. “We keep them short enough – that’s really the key,” Jones said.
In addition, the newspaper is working to develop video series or video shows, such as online sports video shows, that companies can sponsor. Jones said the newspaper is “turning the tables” on the sales department, by having the ad sales staff line up sponsors before the newspaper really moves forward with a new online video show or ongoing series. Recent sponsorships prove that this model is working.
Fry is optimistic about video advertising’s potential. “The sizzle is there and the engagement is good,” she says. “It’s so different: You’ve taken an action…. It’s such a one-on-one engagement, and I think it has high value.”
Landmark Projects
Earlier this year, The Oklahoman was a finalist for three NAA Digital Edge Awards for a video and print project called “Cold Case OKC.” The series has won several awards since. The series involves reporters from The Oklahoman worked closely with the police department to re-shoot crime scenes and interview people related to unsolved cases such as family members, reporters and police officials. “We actually helped the police solve one,” according to Fry.
Opubco plans to keep growing its video operations with more projects and more advertising revenue.
“At a time when things seem uncertain to some newspapers, the reality is that if you look a little deeper, it’s a very exciting time and an opportunity to move the industry forward,” Horton says.