Angus Farquhar, Online Video Producer

Print publishers can do online if they try

After all the doom and gloom in the recent weeks about the imminent demise of the print publishing industry and the likely disappearance of many traditional publishing companies, I thought it would be nice to highlight some people that are making the transition to digital work really well.

Gazettelive.co.uk was brought to my attention by friend and social media star Daniel Thornton (via PaidContent) because they have managed to monetize ultra-local video by using a sponsor-filled pop-up screen  behind their sports reporters.

Now this in itself is worth praising, but looking around the site you can see that they have properly embraced the way the web works rather than the hesitant approach we often see.

• They have video and image galleries to accompany their written articles in both incidental form and produced pieces
• They promote videos about the local area that aren’t necessarily produced by them
• They encourage users to send them images by Flickr and get involved in the stories
• They get local community groups and individuals to blog on their area of expertise
• They use polls, social bookmarking, UGC and a whole host of other tools

Now the site still doesn’t go as far as it should to generate user involvement (not enough calls to action on stories and hidden UGC articles to name a couple of things) but compared to the majority of print publisher’s sites, this really is a good example of what can be done with a little effort and a the will to try.

Posted by Angus Farquhar (17/12/08 11:33)