I started out in
the industry as a focus group moderator and learned very quickly that the
quality of the recruit and management of the group are two vitally important
factors to assure the gathering usable insights. So I was intrigued when I was
invited to interview Roy Sekoff, President of the newly launched HuffPost Live.HuffPost Live is a new online news site from the Huffington Post / AOL which offers a live stream of news and feature stories along with real time viewer commentary throughout the day. On the one hand, it could be considered a fascinating new entrant into the scrappy world of news reporting. On the other hand it could be a platform for the world’s largest focus group.
Roy Sekoff has an impressive pedigree. Although he started out his career with the hope of becoming a screenwriter and director, he found his way via Michael Moore’s TV Nation to news reportage. Roy is the founding editor of the Huffington Post and the President and co-creator of recently launched HuffPost Live.
The intent of HuffPost is not to create a new brand. It is an extension of the Huffington Post – a video strategy with 12 hours of live programming every day, edited into clips that are featured throughout the HP verticals. Roy speaks of “the moment” in media where people do not want to be talked at. They would rather be engaged in a dialogue where they can respond, ideally in real time.
There are five videos in this interview which span the launch
of HuffPost Live to a larger global discussion of the role of news today, the issue
of news objectivity and authenticity, the idea of news as a focus group and a
look forward to the next couple of years as well as the upcoming election. The
videos are as follows:
Subject Length (in
minutes)
Background and HuffPost Live (7:41)
Positioning and Objectivity (8:23)
News As Focus Group (9:01)
Authenticity (5:23)
Predictions (9:14)
Charlene Weisler interviews HuffPost Live President Roy Sekoff who talks about his background and the launch of HuffPost Live in this 7:41 minute video:
HuffPost Live President Roy Sekoff talks to Charlene Weisler about HuffPost positioning in the news community and the factor of objectivity in reporting the news. This video is 8:23 minutes:
News as focus group? Charlene Weisler
interviews HuffPost Live President Roy Sekoff in this 9:01 minute video:
HuffPost Live's Roy Sekoff discusses the importance of authenticity with Charlene Weisler in this 5:23 minute video:
Charlene Weisler
interviews HuffPost Live President Roy Sekoff who talks about prediciting where the media is headed in the next five years. This video is 9:14 minutes:
No comments:
Post a Comment