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The Concept of the Online Video Magazine
The Concept of the Online Video Magazine
by Rick Hendershot,
Videoinabox.com
Editor's note: This is one in a series of "thought experiments" developed
in 2002. In retrospect (two years later) I think the development of something
like a "video magazine" is both wildly unrealistic, and inevitable. I wonder if
that is the mark of a reasonably good thought experiment. In the short term this
idea seems tailor-made for content-based RADIO, and I have experimented with some aspects of this with Marketing Bites Radio.
In another segment in this series I mentioned a concept I call The Video Magazine. Here I develop this idea as an alternative model for thinking about and packaging streaming
content aimed at a relatively narrowly defined target niche.
As I previously suggested,
the core idea is modeled on the specialty cable channel, but has features
that give it the sort of appeal we expect from a web-based service. Most
importantly, interactivity.
Of course the magazine
concept does not require a streaming video component. You could have an
online magazine about pets, about home renovations, about
skiing in the Amazon valley, about underwater alligator hunting -- whatever.
The essential feature is that the site focuses on a narrow field, and
includes a variety of things of interest to people interested in that narrow
field. "All alligator hunting, all the time."*
But this site is about
streaming video. So we are investigating how the specialization of the
e-zine can be used to package streaming video. If I was to create an online
Video Magazine, I would begin by including the following features.
- The magazine site
would appeal to a wide enough target niche to attract enough visitors that
I could sell advertising to companies interested in reaching that target
niche. (Presumably, not underwater alligator hunting.)
- It would contain both information and
entertainment, both of which would be designed to generate traffic.
Information would be accumulated in directory form: for example, create a
database of "The 50 best places to go underwater alligator hunting". Plus
there would be lists of tour operators, equipment suppliers, restaurants
and resorts that appeal to UWAhunters, etc. Entertainment would be
constantly being updated: Stories about UWAH, interviews with renowned
UWAHunters, regular updates on developments in the UWAH industry, etc.
Streaming video lends itself beautifully to this job.
- I would look for advertising
opportunities throughout the site content, and I would try to make it
streaming advertising. For instance, I would try to sell companies listed
in the directory on the concept of streaming media advertising -- audio,
video, or flash. You click on their link and you're taken to their ad. I
would offer a very cheap production service where we produce audio and/or
video ads from still photos, audio voice overs, stock footage, etc. This
would be one of the special features of my video magazine as opposed to an
ordinary website, or print ad placed in the traditional media -- ads in
Rick's Video Magazine are
done in streaming media. Furthermore, they are interactive. As an ad runs
in its special window, it triggers accompanying ads featuring other
products offered by the company, or more in-depth descriptions of specific
services. And there are links to their website and an email contact
button.
- I would run a core streaming program on
the home page that would be structured as a playlist program, and would
continually loop. It would feature my most recent production, interview,
feature, as well as secondary features, information updates, and, of
course, ads inserted between features. The core player/window would also
have frames for premium advertising, again triggered by cues in the
streaming content.
- Many of my features would be done live
or essentially live, to eliminate production delays and over-editing. I
would create a format and a style that was interesting and of high
quality, but where editing and mixing were kept to a minimum; a format
that is easily reproducible, and conducive to fast content creation.
Obviously this is a challenging set of production criteria.
- I would include interactivity that goes
beyond simple web page and email links. Since one objective would be to
develop a community of regular visitors, a Chat Room would be an
interesting addition, especially if one regular feature of the site was a
regular live webcast featuring a special guest. A Chat Room would allow
people to interact with the guest in an interesting and informative way.
The biggest problem with any of these ideas is paying for the service,
or better, actually making money with it. Most low-traffic ezines start out with
the best of intentions, but quickly morph into sales pitches for content-related
products. And often it seems, the crappier and more schlocky the products are,
the more likely they are to appeal to the special target audience.
So you might
think it simply comes down to creating a large enough audience to, say, sell
advertising. Traffic generation, in other words. Unfortunately high traffic
sites like www.rense.com demonstrate how
generating traffic and squeezing revenue from that traffic are two very
different things. I will deal with this topic at greater length in another
segment in this series.
Rick Hendershot is the founding publisher of The
Linknet
Marketing Resource Library, and has been dabbling in online video and audio for
a number of years.
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