Case Studies from The Holland Sentinel, The Oklahoman and The Miami Herald

For the Holland, (Mich.) Sentinel, online video is not about quantity - it's about quality.

Local television Web sites have the edge in terms of video volume in western Michigan. "On the other hand, we have the edge because we know how to tell stories," said Rick VanGrouw, director of audience development. "Now the big challenge for us is to translate our story-telling abilities. There's true potential there."

With that potential in mind, Holland Sentinel publisher Peter Esser made online video a priority in 2007, and the newspaper started production on original online videos that spring.

News Team Member Andrea Goodhall, who covers the city of Holland, said video on HollandSentinel.com mostly started with spot news. After getting her feet wet, Holland suggested a new series for the newspaper, "Behind the Scenes," and has been doing a feature video with each monthly installment in addition to other, individual video news stories. "We're still hyper local, but we're giving [the audience] a different aspect of that and I think they appreciate it," she said.

Learn more about The Holland Sentinel's online video projects here.

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In less than two years, The Oklahoman has gone 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."

Learn more about The Oklahoman's video here. (That page will lead you to a behind the scenes peek at their video operations, too!)

Two years ago, if a Miami Herald crime reporter was working on a story and knew the police had related video footage, the reporter would call the local television station to see if they had it. Now, the crime reporter calls the police's public information officer directly.
"That's the evolution," Multimedia Manager Karen Burkett says.

The example she gave is representative of the general trend at the newspaper. Many Miami Herald staff members have embraced online video, and their willingness to adapt has contributed to the newspaper's success with it. In just a few years, the newspaper has moved from two early adopters experimenting with their own equipment to multiple people producing up to 30 original videos per week, Burkett says. Soon, the newspaper will have a video studio of its own adjacent to the newsroom.

Learn more about The Miami Herald's video operations here.

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