Jeff Beckham

The always-insightful Scott Karp wonders whether local newspapers should compete with local TV stations by producing their own news video.

Equipping reporters with a video camera along with the traditional pen and notepad gives local papers another outlet for distributing information, and, as Scott points out, another way to reach out to local advertisers.

To quote Scott:

The overriding question is whether focus on video can help newspapers with the transitioning their businesses from print to digital — without going out of business. The TV business is in the midst of the same painful transition as newspapers, so it’s not as if there are established models to follow. But that’s why this may be a golden opportunity for newspapers — if online video ends up being a lucrative business, newspapers can compete without the infrastructure overhead that broadcast TV has — just as native online publishers have done to newspapers.