The news is changing, especially the way in which it is reported and delivered to us, the public. While Google has already been accused of adversely affecting the fortunes of print media by way of its search engine, YouTube could be about to do the same for television news.
The Way Of The Web
The Internet has and is changing the way we all live our lives. We use the Web in almost every aspect of our lives, including keeping in touch with friends, doing the shopping, managing our money, and being entertained.
The latter includes online video, with short-form content on YouTube and the like sitting alongside long-form content on the likes of Hulu and the BBC iPlayer.
Online Video News
Then there is news, which has changed from being completely controlled by the big media organizations to being decentralized and humanized by bloggers and citizen journalists. What’s also happened is that search engines such as Google have begun aggregating the news, delivering it in smaller chunks to bigger audiences.
This trend is now overflowing into online video. Citizen journalists with video cameras, and let’s face it most mobile devices now have the ability to record video, are starting to report on the ground. And now YouTube is disseminating news videos in a similar but not quite the same way that the Google Search engine does.
YouTube News Near You
is a relatively new offering from the online video market leader. The new feature essentially compiles a collection of news videos from your area, all related to or originating from a 100-mile radius of your location. This is achieved by way of Google geotagging the videos and knowing your location when you log in to YouTube.
According to The New York Times, YouTube claims 200 news outlets have currently signed up to provide reports for the ‘News Near You’ feature, including ABC News, The Associated Press, and Reuters.
But the service is currently being fed by smaller TV stations looking for a home on the Web and less obvious news video outlets such as radio stations, colleges, newspapers, and citizen journalists.
Old Vs. New Media
This service succeeds by offering content providers a split of all revenues generated from their featured videos. So there’s a definite carrot on a stick waiting for eager news organizations. So why aren’t more than the 200 current partners biting?
Because of where this could potentially lead. The Internet has so far proved quite hard to monetize. Web users are generally tech-savvy, impatient souls who want what they can get when they want it and all for free. Which doesn’t bode well for news organizations looking to protect their long-term futures.
Conclusions
YouTube’s ‘News Near You’ is a brilliant feature which could take off and further help change the role and delivery of news via the Web. But that’s exactly the reason why the old media guard are likely to be unwilling to embrace it wholeheartedly. What may seem like a good idea now could merely be a short-term solution.
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