Alert! Awesomeness on the Internet!
Today I will show, using a specific example, why print publications should not, I repeat, should NOT attempt rash expansions into "multimedia production" despite the mad, dare I say trendy rush to do so on their websites.
Forbes is a respectable publication -- or so, having never had the pleasure of watching the "Forbes Video Network," you might think.
I can just see the Forbes people sitting in a boardroom with their "ace" multimedia director, who is telling them that they must expand into video to be competitive. The big boss, David Andelman, responds that they have no budget for a broadcast professional and everyone responds to that sour pronouncement with a moment of silence. All of a sudden, faces brighten..."Hey...David, you could do it!" Yes, he could...but should he?
What we have here is an editor acting as "anchor" who's spent his entire career away from cameras and, to put it politely, has a face for radio. Alright, cheap shot, but the guy is so obviously a newbie at reading a teleprompter, it's painful to watch his eyes continuously wandering to just below eye level. People, the least you could do is stack that screen up on a couple phonebooks. For cryin' out loud!
Next, we have the ridiculous attempt at creating a "show" or broadcast news magazine that, in Andelman's words, "is all about security and terror." Yes, that's the tagline. It's awkward, sure, but the title is the real kicker. "Alert!" sounds like an awwwwwesome brainstorm out of Grover Cleveland High School's Freshman Journalism 101 class. And they've got the editing and backdrop to match -- note the moment when Andelman "cuts" to his guest. It's so obviously not a real time broadcast, from Andelman's hand positions, to his vocal tenor, to the timing of his first question, it's embarrassing. Andelman's guest, Ken, "corresponding from D.C.," looks like he went to Kinko's and had a big stand-up cardboard poster made of some vaguely Middle Eastern city to sit behind him. Andelman's weird bright orange backdrop at the Forbes Video Network "headquarters" isn't too hot either (though it does nicely match the "Alert!" logo).
The best part of all this is that in the yawn inducing 5-minute long interview, Ken essentially tells us nothing about security and terror. Except for the vaguely alarmist and fear inducing tone "Alert!" sounds by the very virtue of being called "Alert!", the only quasi-point this ex-NSA director makes is that Al Qaeda has the capacity to inflict some horrible online-based network attack. Forbes, of course, must dress that nugget up as "al Qaeda is able AND ready to strike on the Internet" (my caps).
Which all leads to one simple question: Why? Why, Forbes, why?
Part of the explanation, of cour$$$$e, is the great additional source of advertising revenue that "multimedia" represents for print publications ("Alert!" makes you sit through two of the same fucking ad, but tries to make the second one feel like a TV commercial break, which it doesn't), and god knows they need the money these days. But they've gone to such lengths of awfulness in this broadcast, making up a name for it, giving it a beat, finding a guest...and, they've put their frickin executive editor on the line just for a few extra bucks? I don't think so. They actually think -- stay with me here -- they actually think they are presenting a quality journalistic broadcast here. They can plead ignorance all they want, but the fact that they're rakin' in extra bucks for making you and me sit through this shit just isn't right. Take some of the cash, send your technology man to video editing school and get some skills in-house, or, better yet, hire an outside producer like me to help you. But for god's sake, make this better.
To be fair, I should mention that Forbes isn't alone and that wonderfully sad examples of attempts at "multimedia expansion" are resplendent on the Internet these days (instincts of self-preservation prevent me from naming names). But the Forbes Video Network reaches new heights. So watch it and enjoy...err, weep!
Forbes is a respectable publication -- or so, having never had the pleasure of watching the "Forbes Video Network," you might think.
I can just see the Forbes people sitting in a boardroom with their "ace" multimedia director, who is telling them that they must expand into video to be competitive. The big boss, David Andelman, responds that they have no budget for a broadcast professional and everyone responds to that sour pronouncement with a moment of silence. All of a sudden, faces brighten..."Hey...David, you could do it!" Yes, he could...but should he?
What we have here is an editor acting as "anchor" who's spent his entire career away from cameras and, to put it politely, has a face for radio. Alright, cheap shot, but the guy is so obviously a newbie at reading a teleprompter, it's painful to watch his eyes continuously wandering to just below eye level. People, the least you could do is stack that screen up on a couple phonebooks. For cryin' out loud!
Next, we have the ridiculous attempt at creating a "show" or broadcast news magazine that, in Andelman's words, "is all about security and terror." Yes, that's the tagline. It's awkward, sure, but the title is the real kicker. "Alert!" sounds like an awwwwwesome brainstorm out of Grover Cleveland High School's Freshman Journalism 101 class. And they've got the editing and backdrop to match -- note the moment when Andelman "cuts" to his guest. It's so obviously not a real time broadcast, from Andelman's hand positions, to his vocal tenor, to the timing of his first question, it's embarrassing. Andelman's guest, Ken, "corresponding from D.C.," looks like he went to Kinko's and had a big stand-up cardboard poster made of some vaguely Middle Eastern city to sit behind him. Andelman's weird bright orange backdrop at the Forbes Video Network "headquarters" isn't too hot either (though it does nicely match the "Alert!" logo).
The best part of all this is that in the yawn inducing 5-minute long interview, Ken essentially tells us nothing about security and terror. Except for the vaguely alarmist and fear inducing tone "Alert!" sounds by the very virtue of being called "Alert!", the only quasi-point this ex-NSA director makes is that Al Qaeda has the capacity to inflict some horrible online-based network attack. Forbes, of course, must dress that nugget up as "al Qaeda is able AND ready to strike on the Internet" (my caps).
Which all leads to one simple question: Why? Why, Forbes, why?
Part of the explanation, of cour$$$$e, is the great additional source of advertising revenue that "multimedia" represents for print publications ("Alert!" makes you sit through two of the same fucking ad, but tries to make the second one feel like a TV commercial break, which it doesn't), and god knows they need the money these days. But they've gone to such lengths of awfulness in this broadcast, making up a name for it, giving it a beat, finding a guest...and, they've put their frickin executive editor on the line just for a few extra bucks? I don't think so. They actually think -- stay with me here -- they actually think they are presenting a quality journalistic broadcast here. They can plead ignorance all they want, but the fact that they're rakin' in extra bucks for making you and me sit through this shit just isn't right. Take some of the cash, send your technology man to video editing school and get some skills in-house, or, better yet, hire an outside producer like me to help you. But for god's sake, make this better.
To be fair, I should mention that Forbes isn't alone and that wonderfully sad examples of attempts at "multimedia expansion" are resplendent on the Internet these days (instincts of self-preservation prevent me from naming names). But the Forbes Video Network reaches new heights. So watch it and enjoy...err, weep!
posted by alex at 1:58 PM
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