First Ever Video Letter to the Editor

September 17th, 2007 by Wilson Tan

For the first time, the NY Times has published a video letter to the editor: Charles Ferguson, documentary filmmaker of No End in Sight, presents a video rebuttal to claims made by L. Paul Bremer III that top American officials approved the decision to disband the Iraqi army.

I’m sure the Times will be monitoring reaction to this new medium–and where the Times lead, others will follow.

With readily available video and audio editing software, cost is no longer a barrier to entry.  However, video or audio letters are not necessarily right for all clients or subject matter.  Factors that determine a good fit include compelling visuals and crisp sound bites.  Ask the questions: What can video do that text cannot?  Are the desired emotions or facts conveyed any more compellingly?  Would the target audience have the motivation or time to sit through a viewing?

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Agency 2.0, Media, Media Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “First Ever Video Letter to the Editor”

  1. Matt McLernon Says:
    September 18th, 2007 at 11:24 am

    Great post. However, it’s an interesting example because the video is of high quality, and well-edited with unique and powerful content. I’m interested to see if NYT is setting the bar with this example, though their text-format letters to the editor were never a thing to scoff at either.

  2. The Zone Read » Blog Archive » links for 2007-09-18 Says:
    September 30th, 2007 at 8:37 pm

    […] Grounded In Reality » Blog Archive » First Ever Video Letter to the Editor For the first time, the NY Times has published a video letter to the editor. Thank you, Wilson Tan, for the heads up. (tags: nytimes videocast) […]

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