Oct. 22, 2006

By DWAYNE YANCEY
Assistant managing editor for content and planning
The Roanoke Times

If you're a newspaper that wants to do video on the web, you'll need some fancy computer gizmos you probably can't buy at the local Radio Shack.

You'll also need a thick skin and the soul of a revolutionary, because what you're about to do doesn't come naturally to newspapers – which is probably the main reason you ought to do it.

The Roanoke Times (circ. 97,000) started a daily 5-minute webcast, The TimesCast, on Roanoke.com in December 2005. We've just launched our first spin-off, a weekly sports webcast dedicated to college sports – in our case, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia. We include video on all our big projects. And we're looking at starting more video initiatives. Along the way, we've built a small but growing audience of people that newspapers claim they're dying to reach – adults in their 20s and 30s. Well, we're capturing them in Roanoke – not in print, but on the web, and through some decidedly non-newspaper formats.

Here are five big lessons we've learned:

■ You really can do this in-house.

We intentionally did not want a slick TV feel; we wanted a rough-edged web feel. We did add one staff position, for a producer. But we found that person already on our staff in the form of a still photographer who was adept at technology. Later, as we got more deeply into video, we created a second position, but also filled that in-house – by someone who was working in advertising, and liked to create videos for his rock band on the side.

We found all our "on-air talent" in-house as well. Some are reporters, some are editorial assistants, one is a copy editor, one is a page designer. None have broadcast backgrounds. Instead, the best investment we made was to hire a local acting coach to train them on presentation. His advice was pretty simple – how to read a script "cold" and figure out which words to stress, when to breathe, how to smile, how to gesture and how not to gesture. But it was advice that was all foreign to print people. And yes, the idea of an acting coach freaked out some people. But that brings us to ...

■ Find a core group of true believers.

Don't try to convert everyone to the idea of doing video, because you can't, and you'll waste a lot of time and energy in the process. There are those who will think you have sold your journalistic soul to the devil, because for so long we've longed at video as the enemy. Don't let the naysayers discourage those who are willing to innovate.

When we started, we regularly showed off our webcast at the daily budget meeting, and other staff meetings, thinking it would be a way to build staff support. Big mistake. Traditionalists howled – loudly – and those willing to innovate felt intimidated. Instead, we started going about our business more quietly. No need to make enemies. But gradually, we made friends. As our video work proceeded, those who thought it was "cool" started coming to us to ask if they could help. We signed them up instantly.

It's too easy to say you'll find a generational divide on the subject, because it isn't that simple – but sometimes it's pretty close to that. To get started, figure out who the people are who are really into online – and not just looking at newspaper websites. Look for those who are looking at YouTube or have their own MySpace pages. If you have to explain to someone what a MySpace page is, the odds are they're probably not going to "get" it.

■ Keep explaining why you're doing this until you're blue in the face.

And then explain some more. The problem with newspaper newsrooms is, well, we're all newspaper readers. And so often it's hard for us to understand that most of the world is populated by people who are NOT newspaper readers. Yet those are the people we're trying to reach, and many, if not most, of them are going online. And more and more, a big part of the online experience is video. But it's hard for traditional print journalists to grasp this. So be prepared to make this point again and again and again and again and ... We tried staff meetings, team meetings, memos, one-on-ones, all that. And the fact it, we're still trying to explain to some folks why this is necessary.

■ Be prepared to tolerate – and even embrace – things you wouldn't do in print.

You certainly don't want to compromise your ethics, or your commitment to accuracy, or other fundamentals of journalism. That said, online doesn't have to look and feel exactly like the newspaper. In fact, it shouldn't. For instance, we've created an online soap opera starring a beauty queen – Miss Virginia 2006. We've brought in high school cheerleading squads to deliver the weather on our daily webcast. We've also brought in the minister of the biggest church in town.

So let creative people be creative. Sometimes they'll do stupid stuff that will make you grimace. But sometimes those are the things you learn the most from. Like the time we had a stuffed groundhog for groundhog's day. And ultimately, you can point to what works and what doesn't. Some staffers covered their ears the day we had a local metal band rocking out in our supposedly sound-proof studio. But then the webcast with that band became one of our most popular webcasts ever. So there.

■ This will take more time than you think it will.

Whatever amount of time you've budgeted for online, double it or triple it. First, it will take more time to master the skills than you think it will. Second, the people who enjoy this will, well, they'll enjoy this. And they'll want to spend more time on this – experimenting, tinkering, cooking up new stuff. That's where most of our "extra" time has come from. After a year of doing this, we have now absorbed the video basics into our daily routine – but the time devoted to "creativity" keeps growing. As long as that "creativity" doesn't get in the way of producing the print newspaper, we say "have at it." Because that's where the future is.