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A truly colorful individual in Peoria, Ill., made for a pretty good quick-hit video for the Journal Star newsroom.
Newspaper columnist Phil Luciano visited Donald Bernovich, a local Peoria resident who says he has seen weird wildlife lately near his home. He said he's seen "wolf coyotes" and three parrot-like birds that make strange calls.
See, Donald is a strange bird himself. This picture shows off some of his yard, which is filled with bowling balls and other odd decorations.
Regardless, it was an entertaining column for veteran Luciano. In addition to visiting with Bernovich, the Peoria columnist brought multimedia equipment and shot some video of Bernvoich explaining the wild animals he's seen.
This is an example of raw video, a strategy that GateHouse Media is rolling out to its newspapers over the course of the next several months. The premise of raw video is to connect it to assignments reporters are already on (in this case, the Bernovich interview).
Sometimes — actually often — the questions asked during the taping, may be information the reporter already collected during their interview process, but they should ask the subject to recap a piece of what they talked about in a short time frame (under two minutes) for the video. This may be something of interest or an overview of what the story is about.
While the Peoria video is a little shaky here and there, the idea is solid. It's fun to see the colorful Bernovich explain what he's seen and the back and forth with him and the columnist, is engaging. Is this at the level that Peoria has produced video in the past? No. It's not project oriented, with tons of editing and b roll, but I like the overall direction it's headed because it's easy to produce and offers the reader a different view of the story and insight into what the reporter experienced.
David Arkin is the Vice President of Content & Audience for GateHouse Media. He oversees all matters related to print and online content, strategy, and online development and support related to the company’s content management system. From 2007-2011 he served as the executive director of the News & Interactive Division for GateHouse Media. Prior to that, he served as the executive editor of Greater Niagara Newspapers (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) and served as the top editor for the Cullman Times (Ala.), the Porterville Recorder (Calif.) and the Huntsville Item (Texas).
