Howard Owens released a list of online awards for newspaper sites, as judged by a sophisticated panel of one, and asked for some feedback. So, I’ve decided to finally admit . . . I don’t like the TimesCast from Roanoke.com.
Is everyone in love with that show except me? Folks seem to think:
1) It’s funny.
2) It’s newsy.
Howard awarded it “best vlog or web newscast” and said:
Roanoke serves up a nice recap of the news in a well-done, professional manner that makes no conscience attempt to be like a television broadcast. It’s fun and full of personality.
For good measure, I sat through an entire TimesCast today to see if anything changed since watching it originally. The result? Never laughed. And learned very little.
What I did get was about 15 seconds of information about each story and maybe a half-dozen invitations to click a link to an article that contained the actual news.
For me, the TimesCast is an elaborate teaser fest. It’s a lot of effort to repackage the day’s news with what should be witty repartee. Except, it’s rarely witty. So what’s left is a nice looking, and superficial, video project.
With the advent of niche content and niche presentation styles, not everything is for everyone anymore. But I think Talk Soup is hysterical. And my best guess is the TimesCast was supposed to be Talk Soup for Roanoke.
Comments (6)
Look for this to potentially be rolled out in other markets. I hear through the grapevine that Muncie, Indiana (where I run Muncie Free Press) is gonna be another test newspaper for that 'web idea.'
Personally, though, I think community (nurturing it, caring for it) is more important in the long run.
Posted by kpaul mallasch | December 1, 2006 11:59 PM
Posted on December 1, 2006 23:59
If the TimesCast model is going to be rolled out to other newspapers, the implication is it's been a secular success for Roanoke. Has it?
Obviously, the TimesCast has earned a lot of critical acclaim with a stack of honors. And Roanoke might even be able to sell advertisers into a product that looks so professional.
But are lots of people watching the TimesCast every day?
Regardless of what I might think or the awards might say, if the section gets mounds of traffic, then that determines its success.
Posted by Lucas | December 2, 2006 10:08 AM
Posted on December 2, 2006 10:08
when i was still at the star press, all of our forays into video got very little traffic when compared with overall site traffic. i can't see that changing much now. and it's not a broadband issue, i don't think. i'm getting around 80% visitors with cable or better speeds. why watch a tiny short video? especially since the college is already doing a good job of it. better ways to spend the money. i wish them luck, but i don't see it being sucessful...
Posted by kpaul mallasch | December 3, 2006 8:37 PM
Posted on December 3, 2006 20:37
Since I see nobody from The Roanoke Times has left a comment yet, I'll throw one down.
I've been involved with the TimesCast from the beginning (almost a year now), and I currently host the Webcast on Mondays. And no, it's definitely not my full-time job (I'm a Web developer for the newspaper).
In fact, nobody was specifically hired to work on the TimesCast. Except perhaps for our multimedia producer, who also helps with the newspaper's expanding video efforts.
I completely understand if you don't find the humor we use to your liking. I'm no comedian, and even I don't think our jokes past muster most of the time.
But it is meant to be lighthearted (we do serious sometimes) for the most part, which is in contrast to most of the other methods of getting the news. We're not TV, and we don't want to be.
The TimesCast is a short compilation of the current and upcoming news, entertainment, sports and other information rolled into a 5 minute, interactive Webcast. Folks don't really want to watch a 20, or even 10-minute video on the Web (certainly not a news video). We give users a gist of the story -- usually a headline or more -- and provide them the opportunity to read more.
The TimesCast isn't a perfect model for a newspaper doing a video news presentation. But it's a good, consistently watched effort that demonstrates daily video is possible for a news-gathering operation of our size and location.
And I think that's definitely something worth some recognition.
(Note: I'm speaking for myself here, and my views are not necessarily those of my employer.)
Posted by Patrick B | December 4, 2006 8:48 AM
Posted on December 4, 2006 08:48
Mindy McAdams pointed out that there is information on viewership of the TimesCast. Seth Gitner from Roanoke shared some numbers during a recent interview.
He said somewhere between 400 and 500 people watch the TimesCast each day. And he said those numbers are increasing.
Video viewers are harder to get than regular uniques, in my opinion. So comparing with regular traffic is unfair.
Still, when deciding value here at HeraldTribune.com, I use a pretty heartless metric. Divide time spent in hours creating a project by page views it generates. The goal is a high number of page views per hour of work. The metric helps when weighing technical value versus journalism value.
Posted by Lucas | December 4, 2006 9:59 AM
Posted on December 4, 2006 09:59
Well we've done it! One year of the TimesCast -- and we are posting tidbits about how the TimesCast came to be and where we are now with the daily video newscast -- you can find this info. on our online newsroom blog called the 404.
Check it out, we have heard lots of questions in the past year and AME Dwayne Yancey has explained it all.
We will be posting numerous postings about it all on our blog throughout the day.
Please post comments and questions on the 404 if you want to know more about what we are up to.
-Seth
Seth M. Gitner
Multimedia Editor
The Roanoke Times
Posted by Seth Gitner | December 8, 2006 10:33 AM
Posted on December 8, 2006 10:33