“Local TV news is already dead – they don’t know it,” US-based online video pioneer Michael Rosenblum tells LocalNewser. Local news is the General Motors of the media industry, he continues.

“The change that’s required for them to survive is essentially that they have to burn the place to the ground.”

LocalNewser: Michael Rosenblum on the Death of Local News on Vimeo on Vimeo

(Hat-tip: Gentleman Ranters)

Similar Posts:

• Star-Ledger launches video newscast – ‘This is not local TV news’
• SoE08: What next for local media?
• Andydickinson.net: Why are we listening to Michael Rosenblum?
• Bits Blog: Traffic patterns visualised at the New York Times
• Images from a newsroom: the Star-Ledger gets webcast ready

Two questions being repeatedly raised at today’s Society of Editors (SoE) conference:

• stop talking about the nationals, how can regional media get in on the digital act?
• what to do about the BBC – or the ‘boa constrictor’ as Mail Online’s editorial director Martin Clarke called the corporation.

Guardian Media Group chief executive Carolyn McCall told delegates that there is a model for the local press, focusing on hyperlocal.

“There will be models that emerge: investing in SEO, local press have to do that. There’s an opportunity for local press to go very local and build revenue around this. There are models, but it will have to be off a very different cost base,” said McCall.

She went on to describe Channel M – the television offshoot of the Manchester Evening News – as ‘a good model’ for local media that could be replicated in the future.

The business risks associated with online and sustainable digital business models, she added, need to be shared regionally and locally.

Regional media will have to take ‘a real hit’ on their bottom line when it comes to online to if they are to maintain standards of quality journalism, she added.

Malcolm Pheby, editor of the Nottingham Evening Post, took up the regional press’ baton in explaining how the NEP had successfully integrated its newsroom with staff now trained to treat all news stories as rolling news to be broken on the web.

But the pervading theme of the day has been the opposition from regional newspapers to the BBC’s proposed local video plans.

Pete Clifton, head of multimedia for the Beeb, did his best to defend criticisms of the plans, saying that the proposals are subject to assessments by the BBC Trust and suggesting that the BBC could forge stronger relationships with other news providers.

Still it was comments from McCall and Clarke, whose affiliate Northcliffe added its voice to the debate today, that received impromptu applause.

According to both, the BBC’s plans present unfair competition to the local press

Cue videojournalism evangelist and consultant Michael Rosenblum, who promised to teach the audience how to beat the BBC at its own game. Key to this he said is embracing technology, in particular video, wholeheartedly and not incrementally.

In response to a question from a Rotherham newspaper publisher, which currently has no video on its website, Rosenblum said there was a demand for the content and the potential for partnerships with regional broadcasters like ITV local.

Similar Posts:

• FT.com: Guardian considered six different pay models
• Michael Rosenblum: ‘Local TV news is already dead’
• Techflash.com: ‘Local media need dual business models, not dueling models’
• BBC could share more technology with S4C/Trinity Mirror in Wales, says Trust chairman
• BBC Trust’s dilemma over local video plans

The Star-Ledger, based in Newark, New Jersey, debuted its new daily online news show yesterday – the first stage in creating an interactive video news experience on the paper’s website.

“Let’s make one thing perfectly clear from the outset: This is not local TV news,” says John Hassell, the Ledger’s deputy managing editor (online), in a blog post.

“This is local video news for the web. It’ll be conversational, interactive and draw constantly on the community of users at NJ.com [the paper's website] and bloggers, vloggers and podcasters across New Jersey.”

Presented by news reporter Brian Donohue, the newscast will be broadcast live and later made available to embed and divided into sections by news item.

The final test version of Ledger Live is below (and yes, the phone will be unplugged next time):

In developing the newscast, the paper participated in a video ‘boot camp’ lead by Michael Rosenblum and opened up discussion on video blogging site Seesmic.

Similar Posts:

• News of the World launches website redesign in beta
• Media Release: BBC Trust confirms permission refusal for BBC’s local video plans
• Live webcast from NYC: crowdsourcing and journalism
• Huffington Post local launches Chicago site
• Election 2.0: blogs, video and mobile streaming out in force for local election coverage

John Hassell, online editor at the Star-Ledger newspaper, has posted pictures of the Ledger’s newsroom as it prepares for its new webcast news show.

The noon bulletin, which will be launched this summer, is being developed with help from Michael Rosenblum, who helped build Current.tv.

Check out Hassell’s pics on Flickr.

Similar Posts:

• Michael Rosenblum: ‘Local TV news is already dead’
• Andydickinson.net: Why are we listening to Michael Rosenblum?
• DAG hands over cameras to readers…
• Thomson Reuters debuts Calais Tagaroo
• Getty teams up with Yahoo to tap into Flickr users