February 21 2007

Sitting at my laptop this morning, through the fog of half-sleep that is 6.15am, I was uploading some tracks to my iPod and got to wondering if anyone would be bothered to upload audio or video headlines from a local newspaper. Perhaps a little abstract, but I was still shaking off the strange dreams that come from reading lists of pesticides in Organic Life magazine before falling asleep.

I had to conclude that the answer was probably no. And to make the issue a little clearer it is something we have been discussing at the Herald in recent months. Several papers across the country already add video and audio clips of their headlines every day, and there is nothing to stop the Herald doing the same. We have the technology, as they used to say about the Bionic Man, before he became the Fall Guy.

But really, I thought while waiting for 9 Crimes (Damian Rice) and Heresy (Nine Inch Nails) to squeeze through the little white cable, what's the point. Uploading tracks at 6.15am is a very rare occurence for me. Mornings are usually a rushed affair in which I try to spend as little time as possible between getting out of bed and getting out of the house, and most people are the same. So who can really be bothered to turn on their PC, hook up to the net, find their favourite news site, find the video and audio feed, download it and then upload it to an iPod. If not me, a news-junkie early-adopter with a technical arsenal the size of CTU (off of 24), then who? Even if you were able to subscribe through RSS or some other system, would you really be interested in watching or listening to someone else read the paper? Good plan, instead of breakfast tomorrow I'll download video of someone tucking into a bacon sandwich.

In reality if you want to hear the local headlines you are going to tune in to your local radio station. Even knowing I can go online and pick up the headlines, I will still tune in to BBC Devon for 45 seconds to hear what's going on. And if I want to see the headlines in the Herald Express (at this point I should explain I live south of the border in Torbay) I'll flick through it in the queue at Sainsbury's like every one else.

The Herald so far is concentratiing on adding video and audio to thisisplymouth where it adds real value to stories, such as watching a Tanner make a pancake, watching a crane knock down buildings, watching Scott Dann get back in the ring or watching pole dancers... err pole dancing. Not to knock what anyone else is doing, all credit to all those trying out what new technology has to offer, and I hope it becomes a success.

But while we could put a lot of resource into generating those headlines every day, at this stage I remain to be convinced of the point. But if anyone out there has an opposing view, and if anyone would like to hear me read out the Herald headlines every day in my 6.15am voice, I'd be glad to hear it.

Anyway, time to try out listening to Headhunter (Front 242) while reading a recipe for organic smoked duck salad.