This should be interesting… The Sacramento Bee is going to start accepting video letters to the editor. So they won’t just write it… they’ll say it! Readers will have to have to do their own video commentaries and email them to the paper. They’ll then be posted on www.sacbee.com.
This is all brand new for the paper – probably a first for the newspaper industry. And there are still many questions. For example, what type of content will be admitted, will it be edited, what are the ground rules? No answers yet.
According to a story published on their Web site, just a year ago, the editorial department had 14 people, including five editorial writers. The department has currently shrunk to 11 people with only three editorial writers.
That means more work for less people… and fewer editorials, “with the leftover space filled by more letters to the editor.”
Could getting readers/viewers to produce content pave the way to less professional work published in newspapers and their online properties?