Video is “in” this season.
The New York Times reports that upcoming Fashion Week will include more than the usual “blogger coverage” this year and will expand to include “blogger TV,” too. Dubbed SCTV (Style Coalition Television), popular bloggers will star in four niche shows: “Retail Bootcamp,” “Street Peek,” “Beauty Extract,” and “Behind the Seams.”
As cost-of-entry for video production decreases the number of video-based blogs and their distribution, (“vlogging”), is increasing. That’s exciting. Niche video commentary can feel more authentic and be entertaining, too. No doubt, video adds to any blog.
But will “vlogs,” or the shows they spin off, push “regular blogs” aside? We wouldn’t bet on it.
“Bloggers aren’t just people who sit in a room and regurgitate press releases,” Karen Robinovitz, the founder of Digital Brand Architects, told The New York Times in a story about why popular bloggers are finding agent representation. “These are the next influencers.”
She says that at the Digital Brand Architect sites, “Blogging is inherently genuine, the truest form of dialogue between writer and reader.”
It’s no revelation that as news, media, and advertising industries evolve in response to technological disruption, multiple challenges appear. At this site — while focusing on journalism — we’ve recently discussed story automation, clicks-driven editorial content, content farms, and “digital-first” initiatives, among other coping techniques.
So why are we predicting blogs won’t disappear anytime soon?
Format Friendliness. Text-based blogs are easily distributed on any current technologies, whether on an iPad screen or mobile device. This makes them extremely potent.
Easy Consumption. You can read a blog practically anywhere. In contrast, listening to a podcast or watching video have other consumption requirements in either devices or location. Video, for instance, requires sound — thus requiring privacy or earphones, unless you have the bucks to offer closed captioning.
Superior “Find-ability.” The mighty Google has been around for a dozen years and continues to refine text-based, webpage-based search. YouTube and Pinterest are both newer engines to search the Internet visually, but, these are both developing and pale in consideration to the volume of information distributed each day via the biggest search engines.
Does video have a place? Of course. Video is a valid type of content and important to any in-depth content mix. To suggest otherwise is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Video, video blogging, and the growth of independent shows and “vlogging” personalities are poised to grow.
Blogging as we offer it is maturing as its own unique form. We call our process Newsblogging. With that comes opportunity for those businesses willing to harness a blog — at least until the next technical innovations stir up the status quo.