I discussed in a previous post last July some of the ideas and best practices for integrating video usage in a newsroom using minimal resources.

The 2016 election period highlighted in an even bigger way that there is a need for newsrooms to automate as much video ingestion in their editorial content as possible. Many of our partners experienced a drop in their sports video views during key moments of the 2016 presidential race because their video teams were focused on the campaign.

The editors had no time to focus on sports, so articles were left alone and published without any relevant video. While it made sense to allocate resources to the presidential race, unnecessarily neglecting another area — sports news — and throwing guaranteed revenue out the window doesn’t.

The solution is simple: It’s all about automation. How do you ensure the majority of your content gets the right video content when you publish an article so your editors can focus on key events or exceptions?

Many video players now offer automation capabilities. In a nutshell, the player, based on keywords and context, will “read” your article and deliver the most relevant video to match that article’s content.

The challenge here is to ensure your video inventory has the appropriate keywords, tag, and metadata. But once this is done, your editors no longer need to worry about manually inserting a video in articles. Doing it manually leads to many missed potential video views and revenue for the following reasons:

• The video might not be included as soon as an article is posted, leading to lost views.
• Many articles get posted without videos because of lack of time.
• Many sections (sports or entertainment) might fall on the back burner as other priorities (like the U.S. presidential race) could take precedent.
• A disruption in human resources (sick days or vacations, for example) can lead to gaps in video execution.

A recent implementation we did with a large news site in California led to an increase of 64% in video views and revenue by automating video ingestion, giving editors more time to: 

• Track and look for viral content instead of focusing on videos inside general news.
• Look at trending stories and promote them harder on social media. 
• Focus on a pressing news story (like the U.S. election) without neglecting the day-to-day needs of the sports or entertainment section.

The bottom line? In the sports world, editors don’t need to focus on the game recap with the video highlight in it. They can focus on that crazy catch, injury, or trade everybody is talking about, and make sure their audience gets that video on your site.

Automation is the key to more engagement and a big revenue increase. Figure this out quickly and your bottom line will feel it!

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