Here at the Chad, we’ve been working hard on improving our video reports, and trying to build an audience for them, but for some time now a Big Black Cloud has been hanging over our heads. And no, those capitals aren’t a mistake.
The BBC has been considering proposals to expand its online video coverage with a £68m network of 60 more localised websites (would this include a BBC Mansfield website?), and it has been hard not to see this as a direct threat to the success of sites such as our own. With the corporation’s unrivalled expertise and experience, their video reports and websites would blow our own still relatively amateur attempts out of the water. We need more room to breathe, and for our newsrooms to get truly comfortable with cross-platform publishing.
Thankfully, it seems the BBC Trust agrees. They are giving us some room to manoeuvre. What’s important now is that we (local newspaper websites) make the most of it.
Tags: £68m, BBC, BBC Trust, chad.co.uk, Michael Lyons, rejected, ultra local, video, website Mansfield Chad
