Multimedia is the New Print

When we installed our major site upgrade in April we added a lot of features. Dedicated blogs, for example. Multiple photos for stories. Daily records, more special sections and easily managed links to related sites.

One thing we're still working on is multimedia, which is probably a good long-term goal for everyone in print journalism to be thinking about.

There's no way for broadcast media to compete with the depth or breadth of coverage available in any single issue of the newspaper. But even color print sources have struggled to provide the kind of show-and-tell available in broadcast media.

As more news organizations have established their presence online, broadcasters have worked to increase the depth and breadth of their coverage, which is limited by time and ad support, and print operations have explored multimedia, which is a buzzword for sound and video.

If you click around you'll find other print operations in the state have started hosting their own video, which is still new territory for most of us. Multimedia is more complicated than print and still photography. It requires more attention to light and sound than anything we put in print.

But in the same way a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video is worth 1,000 pictures. Short demonstration videos can give readers a deeper sense of what they can expect, say, from a dance recital or a play than a story precede or even a review.

And while the capabilities of multimedia pale in comparison to what's available from broadcast media, it does expand our content, ultimately increase the value of our information product and gets our reporters and contributors thinking visually, which is only a benefit.

The trend is toward more and more easily accessible multimedia. As more of our readers access their news electronically, our goal is to continue to provide the best and broadest coverage of life in our region. And as our capabilities increase, that coverage will only get better and more visually interesting.

With that goal in mind, The Minot Daily News currently has a YouTube account for short video clips linked from selected stories on our site. Links are also highlighted where possible in the paper. Occasionally linked material is changed or removed so the information at minotdailynews.com will be the most up-to-date.

Finally, any reactions, suggestions, comments or critiques are welcome and can be submitted to me through this site at tj@tjaman.com.

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