The New Video News Network !

I have been writing a lot about the future of news and where it will take us.....will it be all video, streams of media, all mobile, or will the newspaper somehow survive.  Nobody knows for certain, but one could take a very calculated guess and point towards video / mobile.  I had also talked about a new type of news site that we were building to incorporate into OurTown.com as well as have it stand on its own......VNN ( Video News Network).  

VNN is going to be a video network (much like YouTube), but it is focused on local news and local happenings.  Regular people will be able to upload video in real time to the network as the actual news is happening.  Then our users can view and browse this content through many categories including down the the zip code.  VNN will eventually have "video editors" who can do 3 essential things.....curate the news, comment on the news and create social interaction with viewers as they respond to the news. . We will also have a strict admin control over the site so that it doesn't turn into a YouTube with many off topic videos and keep it limited to what is important to the site and its users.

VNN will become that place for local news stations to upload their daily broadcasts, amateur journalist to upload their findings and breaking stories via video, and also a perfect place for any vlogger !  Since we are incorporated into YouTube itself (meaning our VNN videos get the YouTube video SEO treatment) we become the best choice for these types of users.

We are in the beginning stages of VNN and will hopefully grow into our own over this coming year.  I invite you to check out the BETA site and let us know what you think in the comments.

BETA site - VNN

Your OurTown Superhero,
Chris

Building Your Own Community Site!

You are a passionate community member who keeps involved and up to date with everything going on in and with your community.  The only problem is that most people are unaware of a lot of things happening because your local news / community source is missing those events or doesn't have the time to cover it.  So how do you fix this problem and get the community updates and news to the people who want it?  That is when someone needs to step up and create their own community news site!  In the past most people would have thought this type of ideal to be impossible, but now with all the new innovations it is very possible!  The first thing you have to do is figure out what is needed to start this type of news outlet and how you will approach and run the news outlet.

More people than you think run into the above situation and get to the final questions of what and how on building a local news outlet, but get stuck there and stop.  Most people think that it is just going to be too much work, or that they will put all this time into the outlet and get nothing in return. This could be the case if you don't know the right answers to those vital questions - what is needed to start / how are you going to run it.  This is where I come in....to answer the questions and give all of those people the hope and assurance that it can be done and they can do it!

What is Needed?

1) First you need to figure out what platform you will use to distribute your news.  Most likely you will choose an online platform since print is slowly dying out and the costs keep going up.  So once you figure out that you want to be an online community news source you must figure out if you are going to pay someone to build you a custom website, are you going to just use one of the blogging platforms, are you going to use one of the social platforms, or are you going to join an existing network.

2) Once you pick which online source you are going to use then you need to figure out if you are going to create and maintain this outlet alone or are you going to enlist some help from friends, business partners, or fellow community members.  Figuring this out in the beginning will really help in the planning of maintaining the site.

3)  Now that you have your platform and team members you are going to need to figure out if you are going to run this site out of the goodness of your heart or would you like to benefit financially as well.  This will also help determine if you picked the right platform as some are more inclined to making revenue.  You will also need to decide how much revenue you need to either make it worth your time or keep the site going.

4)  Next you need to make sure you have the equipment needed to cover and report on certain happenings and events.  Mostly you will need some way to take pictures (possibly video) and a way to get notes and/or write a story on location.  Most of these are very low cost and easy to come by.

5) The last major "Need" on my list is motivation!  A lot of people think it is a great idea to do this or go in very strong, but over time stop producing.  You need to make sure that you have the motivation to get things started strong and to keep up with your outlet and to put the hardship in to make a good news source.  Now in the beginning you will have more work, but as time passes it becomes less work and comes easier to manage.


How to Run / Manage your News Outlet .

1)  First you need to figure out the winning combination to reach your full audience potential.  This can be done by a combination of using your own site / social media / newsletters / connecting to bigger sites and so on.  I would recommend to start out by building and promoting your own site and then pushing those stories out to different social media sites.   Make sure to try out different combinations, because different outlets work better for different communities.

2)  Next you will want to make a plan!  Figure out how many hours a week you want to dedicate to your news site and what type of events / happenings you would like to cover.  This is important because if you don't set up a plan you can start spending too much time or too little time working on your news site and both have effects on your viewers and you as a person.

3)  Make sure to have a revenue plan in place and execute on a monthly basis.  In the beginning you will want to build up your content / viewership / networking / and promoting.  Once you have a good readership built then obtaining advertising / sponsorships /  paid classifieds and so on will not be that difficult.  Make sure to set sales goals and set a revenue number you want to hit monthly to make sure it stays worth it!

Now there are many things to do when setting up your own local news outlet / site and many more to carry out while running and managing the site.  Above I have listed many important points and tips that will help out a lot in the beginning.  If you are looking for more help / tips make sure to check out OurTown.com or email us at Support@OurTown.com.


Your OurTown Hero,

Chris

Future of News !

Listeners of the World,

Today I woke up and immediately opened up my laptop to find out our voting results on the many issues and candidates up for election in my state.  Then I proceeded to grab my iPad2 and BlackBerry to head into work.  On the way in I continued to check the morning news on my BlackBerry to find out the what was going on in my city besides the local elections.  Once at work I opened up my iPad2 to check out my daily alerts to see what was going on in the Tech community and to see if there was anything really neat happening.  Then I turned to my computer and sent a friend a link about the voting results.  To say the least things in the news and information industry have changes a whole lot over the past decade.  The real question now is how are they going to change over the next decade!

Many people have projected and predicted how the news industry will evolve - Newspapers will die out, news will go hyper-local, news will become more social, online video will rule the day.....but, what will come true, and what will just been seen as a fade when we look back.  I would like to think some of the predictions are not too hard to figure out if they will come true or not.  Newspapers have seen a steady decline over the past decade and have been scrambling for years to come up with new ways to compete, but I think everyone (even me) can see the end of Newspapers is near.  More and more people are preaching social this and social that and it seems like everyone belongs to a social network, so why not have news become more social?  Also, online video is huge and not to mention everywhere, so why wouldn't news become more online video centric?

All and all it seems the future of news is moving more online, social, and video centric everyday.  With more online news sites popping up, and with YouTube and Facebook being two of the biggest sites on the web, I think that we will soon see an online video social news movement!  Only time will tell if this is all true or if the these notions are just silly.  I for one believe that news will have to become more social and video centric and that is why at least with our online news site we are moving in this direction.  The fun part of actually seeing the next step with news is yet to come, and I for one cannot wait!

Your OurTown Hero,

Chris

Will Hyper-Local News Work?!?

Listeners of the World,

OurTown, Patch, Topix, Everyblock, Placeblogger, The Loop, Outside.in, and the list goes on and on and on........these are "Hyper-Local News" and "Local News Aggregation" sites that have been founded in the last 5 years. Many different people and large corporations have been trying to fill the huge "white space" on the web that is hyper-local news, and in my opinion nobody has figured out the special recipe just yet!

There are many different factors to take in when starting a hyper local news site, some that just leave many scratching their heads. You need to create a model that will allow your contributors (or local editors) to make money giving them an incentive to contribute in the first place, while keeping in mind that you need a way to turn a profit as well to be able to keep the network alive! This I have found is the main problems with bigger networks (Patch, Topix, etc.). They create this network, but do not build in enough ways to generate revenue to actually let them make a profit......I mean from reports it looks like the most successful network is Patch with its 22 Million in revenue, but then you look at its spent which is 160 million!! That does not add up very friendly for the folks over at AOL.

Another main problem is figuring out the right workload for the individual editor / contributor. Many of the bigger networks have found that hiring someone within the actual area is the best way to go (which is the same for us here at OurTown), but then the question comes of how much to we expect out of this person? Many put the person in charge of all the content that goes on the site, where others put then in charge of the entire site, and others put them in charge of every aspect of the site. It becomes very hard to judge what a person can and cannot handle and with most of the sites just adding more and more work to each editor one begins to wonder how is all of the work going to get done?

Next problem is finding the right people for the job! There are many people out their that love to write, but you have to find someone with a "hyper-local news mindset" - meaning someone who is willing to work hard, write stories, curate an entire site, answer questions, be out in the community, become a self-promoter, plus more! It is not enough to just love writing to become an editor in most cases, which makes it a lot harder on the company to get enough of the right people in the door. Let's take two of the biggest networks in Patch and Topix.....It took Patch 160 million to get under 1000 local editors (that should get you a lot more) and then Topix got to around 3000 contributors, but then it turned into childish commentary and scandals instead of news that matters for the community. So in any case it is very hard to get a good amount of the same minded people who will make it work!

The last big problem I will mention here is getting the right viewership for these sites. There are many choices for news across the board (Newspaper / TV / Radio / Magazine / Internet) and some people (hard to believe, but true) just don't care about what is happening locally. They care more about world and national events, which is fine, but not the focus of a hyper local news site. You need the people who care about what is going on in the community, and people who care about the little story (little by national sites standards). You need to be able to reach out and touch the community, get the conversation started on YOUR SITE. That is the key!

Now with all of these problems, questions, and issues from above....one may ask - why even try? Well the reason is simple and that is because it's important and people really do care about that type of news. We have changed OurTown a lot since the site first went live, and I am sure we will be changing it a lot more in the future. We feel that we are really close to getting the "right recipe" and hopefully one of will get it!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

New Post!

Listeners of the World,

Wow.....it has been over a month since the last post for the OurTown blog! A lot has been going on around OurTown with the new site development, process of adding video to the site (vADz Video), process of adding towns in the UK, and more! We have been very busy and wanted to update everyone on OurTown and it's progress.

- The new site is taking a lot longer than planned due to many of the changes, the development of our new ad system and process. We are still focused on getting this site up ASAP and to make sure that it will do and have everything that our local editors need. We have our new look completed and will also have our new training material and schedule when the site is ready!

- We are now encouraging video on the site in a few different ways. We have always had a YouTube feature on the site to be able to add videos, and now we are in the process of adding another solution which will help you create your own teaser videos.......vADz Videos. This will allow our local editors to add their own videos that they created. Now that is just the first part, the second part is with the addition of video ads! We are making it so that you can use the vADz Video system to create video ads for your local businesses. This will create more interest in your page and also help with the local ad sales.

- We have been adding a lot of new great local editors as of late, but one that we will be adding is a little different from the rest! Starting this week we will be adding some towns for the UK to the OurTown site. We have seen the need to be able to expand to other countries and have been working on making the site ready to handle this change. We soon hope to have many towns not only in the US, but also in the UK!

These are just a few of the many projects, additions, and changes that are keeping us busier than ever! We will start having weekly and bi-weekly updates again to help keep everyone updated with everything OurTown, Hpyer local news, Online News, and Social News!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

Video Ads and OurTown!

Listeners of the World,

It has been stated over and over again that this is the year of video and that video will help increase your engagement, conversation, and sales. Well OurTown is listening and working to make sure that our local editors get in on the action! OurTown.com already has video capabilities for articles/stories, but now we are starting to offer video capabilities for their local advertisements as well.

We have a great advantage since we are associated with vADz.com which is a cost effective video ad solution for small and medium sized businesses. We are able to offer to our local editors something that most sites or news organizations can't..........video ads that they can create and price themselves! vADz is an easy to use system where you mix and combine images, videos, text, transitions, and audio to create 15 to 60 second ads. They will have the ability to also add coupons, maps, and other attachments ( ex. car-fax, menu, catalog, etc.).

We have started to introduce this to many of our local editors and for now they can create video ads on the vADz main site, but soon this will be a built in feature! They have the ability to embed the video on the site, include a link in a story or in a rich text ad.

Video is everywhere and will be everywhere on OurTown.com! This is only one of the main new additions to OurTown that will make it better than the rest!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

Media in the New Year!

Listeners of the World,

It is now 2011 and I believe that media will be bigger than ever this year! With all the new advances in technology and in the way that the news is delivered....... more and more people are getting involved. Their is more online news sites, more people reporting and sharing the news, and more ways to receive the news. We are becoming more connected and aware as a nation!

Now there are many different sources of news out there (TV, newspapers, online, mobile, etc.), but I believe we will see a clear winner this year.........online/mobile news! Online has been building steam for many years now, and I think that this year it will completely take over in all facets. Even bigger Newspapers (WSJ, Post, Tribune) have been working on and providing online versions of their paper. And now with TV starting to fade from traditional viewing to online viewing, so will the local news. You will see more people accessing the local news site than watching it on TV!

By the end of 2011 you will see a majority of people using the internet for everything.....watching their favorite TV shows, shopping, socializing (Facebook, Twitter), and most importantly finding their news! One may wonder that by the time 2012 gets here if there will be the need for human interaction at all, or will it all be done electronically?

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

How to write a local story!

Listeners of the World,

In the past only professional writers, and journalist were considered good at writing and telling stories.......well that has all changed! Now a days you see articles and stories coming from all kinds of talented people because of the overwhelming popularity of blogs, and hyper-local news sites. Many wonder what changed, or did this happen? Well with the continuing disappearance of local newspapers fewer people are choosing writing or journalism as careers, but as hobbies!

Now that we have more writers who are doing it because it's fun and not for just a paycheck I believe we are getting better stories, and a bigger variety! To help keep this passion alive I have put together a few helpful hints to help get some of the newer writers a kick-start.

Tips!

1) When starting an article make sure to gather as much information as possible about the event or story you are covering!

2) Try to get a quote or reaction from either the focus of the story or from by-standers.

3) Give it a personal touch! Give it an opinion or put it into words that the reader would use.

4) Make sure to wrap the story up with the outcome or give it a follow up letting the readers follow the story until the end.

5) Don't be afraid that your article isn't formatted the same as a national story, or that is isn't professional enough. A lot people will find it easier to read than some of the stories they read about in major newspapers.

6) Always be on the lookout for a new story or topic to write about. The best stories come when you least except them.

These are just a few tips to keep in mind when you are starting to write your own articles and stories. These will help you at least in the beginning!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

Why the Need for Hyper Local News?

Listeners of the World,

Many ask why there is the need for smaller hyper-local new sites when we already have big media outlets all over the world, and the answer is simply they don't cover all the news. Yes they cover a lot of different stories, but the face of the matter is that there is no way to cover all the stories so they choice to cover what they deem important. There lies the problem, what if you have a different opinion of what is important?

Well over the past years with all the smaller newspapers going out of business this is occurring more and more with people. They want to know more about what is happening in their town and less about how one politician called another a name! They want to know more about the good things happening around their town instead of there was a fire, murder, and accident. Yes those are all very important news, but with the limited time and space they get for telling news they have to hit those while leaving out other news that might make you feel good.

I am not saying that hyper-local news is the complete answer, but a very important part of news. It goes hand-and-hand with national and state news. It allows you to find out about things that you normally wouldn't of know about. In the future you will hopefully see more hyper-local news along side national news to give you the whole story from the neighborhood to the country!

So why would we need hyper local news? Simply because it's news and without it we would be in dark of what's going on around us!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris

What is OurTown????

Listeners of the World,

Local News, Views, Search, and Commerce is the tag line that sums up what OurTown.com is all about. We provide a platform or "pedestal" if you will, to let the people in the community post and write about what is important to them and their community. Instead of the same old news you will find very hyper-local articles unique to each community or town across the United States. We also provide these same people with a unique way to make money while doing what they love. Unlike other hyper-local sites where you continuously provide the site with information or stories for free, we have developed a system where you have the chance to make a nice amount of money. As of right now we are expanding out and trying to fill in the US map with local editors from all over the country. Once we have this done the possibilities will be endless. If this sounds interesting please visit OurTown.com and let us know what you think!


Your OurTown Super-hero,

Chris