The Huffington Post Live, the world's biggest citizen journalism video venture goes on air August 13. Online news like you've never imagined it.

                             

The Huffington Post is expected to launch it's full-day online video news network on August 13 (to be called 'Huff Post Live') but it's doing it differently under the growing banner of "citizen journalism". And the service is beginning to be revealed - although most staffers are sworn to secrecy.


The launch budget by the way....about 30 million us dollars. 30 million.
Every wonder why it's called 'The Huffington Post'? Because it was co-founded by Greek born, Arianna Huffington. One for the pub quiz of the future.

That's her on video at the top of this blog talking about citizen journalism and actually in an inspiring way. Here's what she blogged recently:

HuffPost Live, our new live streaming network, is launching August 13. One of our goals is to create the most social video experience possible. And that's why we're putting you, the HuffPost community, front and center in everything we do, including having you join us live on the air -- an integral part of the dynamic, ongoing conversation that is the heart and soul of HuffPost Live.

The days of media gods sitting up on Mt. Olympus telling us how things are have been over for a while. But now we have reached a critical mass where millions of people have a seat at the table and can join what has become a global conversation. People are tired of being talked at; they want to be talked with. The news is no longer about a few people telling everyone else what happened -- it's about everyone telling everyone what's happening right now. And how.

Never really a news "creator" at their 2005 start, actually more of a blog, The Post was a news "aggregator" but it has now moved firmly in the news gathering business, even winning a Pullitzer Prize in 2012. This is a dramatic move into video vlogging and not as a separate brand but as a link off their main site.

Firstly, The Huff Post Live is not carrying traditional Ads "live" in the traditional TV way.

So no commercial breaks and instead, circa 5 brand sponsors a day. Cadillac have already signed up as a launch sponsor and I'm hearing about some serious brands getting involved (and so they should). My understanding is that these will be like "in programme" sponsorship or like the "olden days" of sponsored hours/programmes.

Instead, archived content will have pre-roll advertising only, which will be lucrative too. The Huff Post is owned by AOL since 2011 (bought for 315 million usd) and so as The Huff Post Live, broadcasts every day, it's going to create massive video inventory which will then be used to create a "youtubey" platform for AOL.

Broadcasting live every day is a lot of video to create - an awful, awful lot and needing production teams, editors and in particular, checkers. Sources will need to confirmed if they move outside of their own crews. BBC has 50 people alone doing just that in their "hub" for example.

Secondly, it plans to carry 12 hours of live video every weekday - pretty impressive stuff for a newspaper and a HUGE endorsement of the need for publishers to have video. It will be "always on" running highlights when it's not actually live.

In fact this looks more like a TV Station with highlights at weekends. I'll bet too they'll resell other content (Netflix anyone?) at weekends. Remember we're talking 300 million minimum page impressions a month here. Comscore estimates 40 million monthly unique visitors. Massive!

We all know that Video grew 42% last year and is expected to grow 54% this year online (emarketer) so this is capitalising on that.  

Advertisers want video so badly, demand outstrips supply in Ireland, and that in a depressed market! But significant ventures like The Huff Post Live, may actually create a glut and weaken ad rates (video cpm attracts a premium because of the lack of supply right now). But there's no doubt, they're going to be a big supplier of online live video.

Thirdly, they have hired a 100 person newsroom including traditional CNN veterans and those from other TV networks. Massive resources. But they're not reporting the news as such, they're trying to develop the news.

"We're not trying to report the news," said Roy Sekoff, a founding editor of the Huffington Post who is heading up the streaming network. "We are trying to have conversations that the news inspires."

Or to quote Arianna Huffington again;

Instead, HuffPost Live will emulate the online experience. No one looks at their watch and thinks, "It's 10 a.m., time for some celebrity news, I think I'll log on to HuffPost!" Instead, readers come to our site to catch up on what's happening in the world and wind up getting caught up in the wide array of compelling stories we offer. You may start with a story on the upcoming presidential debate, then find yourself drawn to some celebrity news, followed by the latest viral comedy video and a segment on the benefits of napping.

In one way it's not unlike what Google's YouTube is hoping to achieve except they're offering their platform/channel for free if you supply the content. Huff Post are actually generating the content themselves.

This will therefore appeal to any of us who have an opinion on the news - read that as all of us.

But this venture and indeed the dramatic traffic of The Huff Post itself (the second most popular newsfeed on Twitter) which never had a real world presence, is a beacon of online publishing. It's creating jobs, it's creating online publishing to be proud of. And who'd ever thought that we'd see this level of investment in an online newspaper.

It unfortunately contrasts with many traditional newspaper companies which are hugely overburdened with debt from ill-timed purchases. Very few publishers will be able to raise money from the market any longer. Circulations are in decline. Ad revenues are in steep decline (-60%). Online Social media is taking money out of the market and online publishers are competing with them and having much lower overhead.

It's absolutely all changing but that is not to say, newspapers are idle - they are not - because I spend most of my day solving this issue with them (TBA). So they know it and are working towards solving it. Plus they still have the real world brands that have the power to push audiences to this site or to that site. However, they could look to The Huff Post Live as a model to go forward with.

Bring newspaper online publishing into the TV market by providing video and let the audience engage. As GetGlue are doing for TV content.

Because video news/weather/sport/entertainment/fashion/beauty etc is king.
It's what the audience online wants and it's what the advertiser wants.

August 13th we'll see the way it can be.

Peepol.tv gets funding to start citizen journalism news. This could change everything.

News is transforming and video of news is transforming too.
Irish publishers already understand the issues and are dealing with it.


But here's a brand new citizen journalism concept called Peepol.tv which is stunning. Stunning. Here's the url they're working with at the moment http://publiclaboratory.com:3019/ and yes, early early stages.


Just awarded funding by the Knight Foundation, who focus on funding media innovation and freedom of expression. Since 2007, they've invested over 100m usd in new technology ideas although largely with a focus on fostering democracy. They believe that open and honest news gathering, is key to creating a better, open society and so they support ideas financially, in that space. And I'm pretty sure, on a non-profit basis. 


The Knight Brothers themselves, are former US Newspaper owners, so they understand the role that news plays. Indeed, we've seen the role of social media news recently in nurturing revolution through the Arab Spring, Syria and others.


Felipe Heusser is the driver behind Peepol.tv and he was motivated when student protestors took to the streets of his home, Santiago, Chile, last year. He felt the press covered the darker side and to give his fellow Chileans a more "unfiltered" view, he attached his iphone to a helium balloon and sent it high above the streets, live streaming the events back to a server. (photo thanks to Niemanlab).

Within an hour, it was viewed by 10,000 and then, he saw the mainstream media embedding his content in their own websites. In fact, I saw the footage on Sky News for example. That event inspired his idea to extend it through Peepol.tv and now, he has the funding to start it.


Using mapping too, it allows you to view live streamed citizen journalism of events across the world. And, by embedding Twitter feeds for example, allows others to make comments on what they're seeing. Importantly too, he can encourage more citizens to get to something that's happening and start filming to stream it back.


This changes everything.


They are creating an App that's quick to open and immediately starts streaming the footage back. Which also means, that if the Police take your phone it won't matter, the footage has already been streamed back.


Although not trained journalists as such, this type of video news has massive potential as more and more citizens sign in and start filming. A new TV network based on news gathering. And they'll extend to other events such as Concerts, Sports, Traffic or anything making it real easy for others to watch exactly what's going on - as it happens.


Apart from the high and lofty democratization ideals, utterly important as they absolutely are, it has the potential to be a real game changer. 


There are issues - libel potential being only one, copyright being another - but there are also no limitations.


Peepol.tv is possibly the new face of news. Or one new face.
They have an idea, they have funding, it works (we know it does because Streamabout is a live streamer too) and we expect to see it within months.


Congratulations to the Knight Brothers too for having the foresight and more importantly, for giving something back in encouraging businesses like this.


A stunning leap forward.


Remember, you heard it here first.