Leaping from the Print Sphere to the Vlogosphere

So far, the biggest lesson Soat has learned from the print-to-video transition is that in video production, less is more and pace is everything. "Time is short. We have to strip away the extraneous and get right to the point," he says. "In print you can luxuriate in the flow of the narration, but with video you have to get there faster." Video has certain intrinsic qualities that help with this change of style. "Because we are using a visual medium, we don't need description, for example," he says. "We can use visual metaphors to make a point succinctly and immediately."

While the use of video has posed some problems for the show's print-centric staff, it has also opened up new possibilities and given them new communication powers, says Soat. "With a video interview we can do what a print report can't--really capture a personality."

One of the nice things about The News Show is that streaming technology prevents it from being studio-bound like typical broadcast TV. Since the only technology requirements for contribution are a laptop and a Webcam, correspondents can report from anywhere. And Soat encourages them to report from diverse types of places, such as coffee shops, malls, cars, airplanes, etc. Another advantage of the technology is the immediacy that correspondents can bring to their reports. If they are covering a computer conference or trade show, they can broadcast from the show floor, thus providing the "feeling that you are there," he says.

The News Show is not a round-the-clock operation like CNN, but since the show feeds once per day at noon, no segment is older than 24 hours. The work flow goes like this: the correspondent FTPs his video to Soat's home/office in Cleveland where Soat has a rudimentary video studio set up in the basement in which he can edit and add special effects such as green screen backgrounds. (The show sticks to Windows Media format, by the way). Soat then FTPs finished segments to an FTP server at CMP company headquarters in New York. The company uses streaming services provider On24 for the final leg to Web surfers.

The News Show currently has no formal way of measuring audience response, which leaves only email and Soat's face-to-face personal interactions at conferences and other events as ways to gauge audience reaction. Soat says that what little feedback he's gotten has been very positive.