Sunday, September 07, 2008

How to set up a Video Journalism Station


What is video Journalism and how you build a VJ outfit from david dunkley gyimah on Vimeo.
Longer version on Viewmagazine.tv
John emailed asking for some info on how to go about starting a video journalism outfit; something I elaborated on at the World Editor's Forum presentation (above).

Well John, It's a fair process, but here's an outline:

Consider:
  • Capital investment and running cost models
  • marketing (TV/Online/print?) and advertising revenue
  • inventory - output -web/cable/triple play/ agency
  • recruitment and training
  • model and growth forecasts are some of the key areas to consider. Compared to tv the outlay is fractional, but you'll be calling on more innovation and cross-relations to penetrate the market in a relatively short time.

Furthermore consider
  • what you're covering and why may seem like the obvious, but that's where many fall short after cash flow probs and resort to traditional norms relying on agency feed to stay afloat.
  • Will you be the provider or will others contribute and if so what's you value or zeitgeist quotient?

Consider what for instance makes the ff:
OSTN , Current TV, The Real News, Yahoo's Kevin Sites attractive or otherwise business and consumer propositions (not outright VJ stations per se, but using VJ models).

They share common ideals in UGC etc, but distinguish themselves in several areas, not least by different tech-cultural usage.

And mainly are you pursuing VJ for TV or VJ for VJ - there's a difference. It is a more comprehensive work flow of events.

Hope this helps. I'll probably blog some more details on this in the future

2 comments:

Cliff said...

David said:

...are you pursuing VJ for TV or VJ for VJ?

I don't think the majority of shooters have even asked themselves this simple question.

Cliff Etzel - Solo Video Journalist
bluprojekt | solo vj blog

Dr David Dunkley Gyimah said...

Time.. this thing just needs time to mature, and then to use a footballing anecdote it'll ask questions, lots of em.
d