Newspapers and video: A short interview with Michael Rosenblum

Michael Rosenblum has become a regular presence in The Star-Ledger newsroom since we started working together last month. Anyone who has spent time with Michael or read his blog knows he has strong feelings about newspapers and local video. For those less familiar with his thinking, here’s a short Q&A we did this morning that captures many of his central points.

Q: What opportunity do you see for newspapers with video?
A: The revolution in technology (cameras + edits + web to video) means television is no longer the expensive and restrictive animal it once was.  The cost of producing TV has hamstrung the quality of television journalism since its inception.  A whole new world of video-based journalism opens before us.  Conventional television news always parasited off of newspapers. Every morning meeting at a TV station began (and continues to begin) by opening the local papers to see what the news is. TV then sends crews to ‘cover’ the stories the paper has already reported on.  The reasons for this are (were) economic. TV reporting was expensive.  There might be only eight crews to cover a whole city, thus there was no margin for risk. Every story had to hit. The only way to insure this was to make sure the story had already happened and had been reported on. The papers did the work, while the TV stations made the money.  This is now over.  There is no reason newspapers cannot move into the space that is so rightly theirs already.  The issue here is no longer cost, no longer technical. It is now entirely psychological.  We are not talking about print v. television, we are talking about simply covering the community and reporting the news.

Q: Why now?
A: We are at a moment of a kind of ‘perfect storm’ of technology. The confluence of 3 revolutions at once:  Cameras are cheap and easy to use; edits are cheap and easy; the web puts our video into every home for free.

Q: Why New Jersey?
A: New Jersey is a great place to start doing this, particularly because the quality of television news coverage in New Jersey has been so lacking. Due to its unfortunate  geographic location - with New York, the number 1 media market in the country, sucking the lifeblood out of the north, and Philly, the number 5 media market in the country in the south, New Jersey has never developed an internal television market of its own.  This is quite clearly nuts, as the state is the most densely populated and second wealthiest in the country, not to mention one of the best educated.  The opportunity here is almost limitless and up for grabs.

Q: Would this be more difficult, from the point of view of competition and return on investment, in a market with stronger local TV news?
A: It would be more difficult and it would take longer, but it would ultimately happen anyway. Here, if we do this right, it should be fairly easy. The state is rich; it is both advertiser-rich and story-rich.  And New Jerseyans have an enormous sense of identification and pride in their state.  I think all the planets are lined up here, not only to create something of enormous value financially but to deliver to New Jersey something that she has deserved for a long time.

Q: Are there any newspapers out there you think are doing this right?
A: No. None. There are some that are getting closer, but we are in uncharted waters and have a chance not only to do this right, but also to become the Gold Standard for the entire industry.  That is why the stuff has to be just so excellent.