The Belfast Telegraph has become the second Irish paper to take the dive in to newspaper video and unveil a TV news bulletin on their site [according to Press Gazette](http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/article/070207/belfast_telegraph_internet_tv).
The Belfast Telegraph launched an internet TV station this week, two weeks after competitor The Irish News did the same.
This is going to be the year of video on the Internet. And, more than that, it is going to be the year that the Web finally becomes truly participatory. No longer will consumers seeking interactive services have to contend with either just a few (mostly American) technology giants offering one-size-fits-all services. And no longer will customers have to put up with jerky, fuzzy pictures that promise much, but deliver little.
And he see's the proliferation of broadband as the way to save us from that fuzzy crap we get from the yanks.
However, industry analysts warn that newspapers that don't respond to the threat posed by high-speed Internet will surely flounder. The most important thing, warns Dr Dietmar Schantin of Ifra, a worldwide industry body for newspapers and other publishers, is that newspapers embrace new technologies, but add their own kind of value and identity.
Don't copy broadcasters – do your own thing while sticking to the paper's central values and beliefs, he told Oliver Luft on the journalism.co.uk website.
So it's a surprise then that the Telegraph TV content is such a direct copy of a broadcast. In terms of content, it may be a mirror of the newspapers agenda but presentation is firmly in the TV style.
It's certainly good news for the local media industry … every report requires someone to accompany the presenter to do the filming. And it's good news for local female presenters that are securing practically all of the on-screen roles for the Irish News and the Belfast Telegraph.
I can see the benefits of this approach. Macmillan seems to have a good hold on the non-traditional outputs, so hyper-local branding could work in a secondary market. But what else will it give the Telegraph and their journalists?
From a broader newspaper video approach I can see shades of the Studio55 vs Timescast debate in the stylistic approaches the Irish News and The Telegraph have taken. Comparing the two you can see the different approaches clearly.
Press Gazette calls the Irish News content "you-tube" style. I agree, but not in the fuzzy-yank way the Telegraph try and sell it. The BT approach may as well be ITV news.
For me I like the Irish News more the than the Telegraph. The footage 'dropped in" to the slick links of the Telegraph looks wrong to me. I get much more "personality" from the IN.
update: I'm not the only one who thinks that The BT missed the mark. Adrian Monck thinks it's a "Nice try, but again it's 'smart idea meets mundane execution'" time.