News Leadership 3.0

July 28, 2008

Newark video takes the next step

The Star-Ledger debuts
‘a new kind of news show’
What’s your video strategy?

If your newsroom is looking at different ways to use video on the Web, check out Ledger Live, a daily noon (Eastern) video news show that debuts today.

John Hassell, deputy managing editor at The Star-Ledger and nj.com, says the news organization wants to produce something distinct from television news programming. Hassell hopes for more interactivity and less formality.

“Let’s make one thing perfectly clear from the outset: This is not local TV news.

‘This is local video news for the web. It’ll be conversational, interactive and draw constantly on the community of users at NJ.com and bloggers, vloggers and podcasters across New Jersey.”

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“... We hope the show can bring people into the newsroom each day for a quick take of the day’s top news, a dose of some good video stories, and a sampling of comments and contributions from viewers. As we go forward, we hope viewers will play a larger role in suggesting stories and helping report them.’‘

The Star-Ledger newsroom jumped into video this spring, with intensive training for staff members who quickly began producing regular video features for the Web. Shot from the middle of the newsroom, the news show represents a next step in the evolution as well as an opportunity to showcase some of the fine video the staff is producing.

You can learn more about the show and watch some funny (not always intentionally so) clips of a final test run here. Catch the live show here.

Is your newsroom experimenting with video? What’s working? What’s not? Please share your experiences in the comments.