'TimesCast' Webcast to end on roanoke.com
Entry updated Feb. 12, 2008 at 4:38 p.m.
UPDATE: The final TimesCast has been published. And I even got a shoutout from Pete at the end!
The Roanoke Times/roanoke.com Online Editor John Jackson announced on the site's "404 Not Found" blog that the much-imitated, award-winning TimesCast Webcast will be no more after today.
I was a 'Caster on the TimesCast -- I also built the TimesCast and Sports TimesCast sites -- when it launched in 2005. Those heady early days were indie-rock; we taped in an unused office (room for three) next to an area under construction (bad for sound).
And damnation, was it hot in there. We never brought in a thermometer, but I think temperatures in the range of 100 degrees were common thanks to the lights.
Yet, I and the rest of the folks involved at the start -- Dwayne Yancey, Seth Gitner, Tad Dickens, Mindy Smith, Pete Dybdahl, Lindsey Nair and Marques Harper -- managed to create something that served as an early model on how newspapers can do video on the Web.
These folks were later joined by several other 'Casters all of whom held day-jobs in the newsroom or elsewhere.
Though she's loathe to admit it, even my girlfriend Lindsay Durango was a 'Caster at one time!
The TimesCast later evolved into a full-scale production complete with a studio and several spinoffs. We even had guests doing the weather.
Many folks in the newsroom were skeptical at first, but with the persuasion of then-Editor Mike Riley and then-Managing Editor (now Editor) Carole Tarrant, they gradually experimented with how the TimesCast could enhance their stories on the Web. It also helped that the studio was essentually in the newsroom; you couldn't avoid peering in to see what was going on that day.
A lot of us were proud to make it to the TimesCast's first anniversary.
Journalism professor Mindy McAdams says the end of the TimesCast is a good thing for the industry:
Maybe this move is a (good) sign of things to come — maybe a lot of other news organizations will realize that the television people have already failed at this, and there’s no earthly reason for newspapers to make the same mistakes.
McAdams does give credit to roanoke.com for being "cutting-edge" two years ago. And it definitely was that.
It seems something that was cutting-edge just two years ago is now stale. Video on the Web took off since the TimesCast launched, and it's model was very labor-intensive (and expensive).
I don't know the exact reasons why the TimesCast was eliminated, but if pressed to guess I'd say it was because of the following:
- Lack of revenue from advertising
- Required too much time to produce on a daily basis
- Didn't increase viewers over time
The TimesCast was never billed as TV on the Web. But even a pale imitation seems to be the wrong path to take.
Like McAdams, I think Roanoke's effort will serve as a waypoint for other newspapers to leapfrog as they discover how to do online video right.
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