Ten steps news organizations should take to embrace a multimedia future

My week with Brian Storm and his team at MediaStorm in New York caused me to reflect on what the future of journalism and journalism organizations might look like.

Today’s journalists might not be the ones to figure it out. That task might fall to the next generation of digital natives. I don’t mean kids who grew up with computers. There are already plenty of those in newsrooms. I mean kids who grew up with computers - and Final Cut Pro and other relatively low-cost, high quality digital gear to play with. The key word is play. Journalists can take themselves too seriously. I think there’s room for serious play, and if any space is suited for it, I think it’s multimedia. It’s got to be the most exciting area in journalism right now. So much more is possible than ever before. Why wouldn’t news organizations take advantage of that?

We’re in a period of invention. It was clear from my experience at MediaStorm that multimedia produced by them and others builds on the traditions of still photography, documentary filmmaking and radio storytelling. But something new is happening. That’s driven in part by rapidly changing technology. So many more people can do this work today, because the equipment - everything from laptops to cameras - is so readily available at a reasonable price. And the price of the equipment is still coming down while the quality is still going up. This has made it possible for all kinds of imaginative stories to be produced by individuals who have nowhere near the resources of traditional news organizations. I see that as an inspiration for journalists to step up. The change is also being driven by the fact that the barriers between media are dissolving. For proof of that, spend some time looking at video game technology and what people are doing in that space. (This video and this video are indicative of how dramatic the developments are.) What’s happening there is defining the visual and experiential expectations of many media users. Expectations are rising. The only way to meet them is to embrace what technology makes possible - without forgetting that the most important thing, no matter the form, remains the story.

The first thing any news organization has to do is establish that it is open to working with all media types and on all platforms. This seems obvious. But it’s necessary. Up till now, many companies have seen themselves as newspapers, or TV stations, or magazines, etc. Now any media company truly can tell stories using the best tools for the content. It's easy to pay lip service to this idea. But it's not cheap or easy to take it seriously. In most cases it is going to require news organizations to add new areas of expertise to their team, either as staff or by building a network of independent players.

Second, news organizations should set up freestanding multimedia departments, with their own P&Ls. (A financial statement that summarizes the revenues, costs and expenses of a business.) If the people doing multimedia work aren’t empowered to push it as far as possible, to experiment as best they see fit, it’s unlikely they will. Let the multimedia department put on events, build exhibits, produce books and other specialty publications, develop educational materials, etc. Give this group - or perhaps a division of the group - the ability to serve commercial or non-profit clients by producing multimedia work for hire. This group is going to need many sources of revenue. It could even seek grants to support its high-level journalistic work. This department can establish standards and workflow for this type of work, just the way the news organization did for its historical product. But it shouldn’t have to bend those standards to fit the old model. Let it invent new ones. It should also not be bound by the geographical definition of any historical organization. This group could produce work touching on universal themes that are not bound by place.

Third, be patient. It’s going to take time. Yes, it’s reasonable and appropriate to expect to see signs of results right away. But commitment is going to be essential. The best such work should have a long shelf life and could generate revenue over a number of years. In many news organizations, measures of success are almost instant. This work is going to require new measurements. It’s not a one-shot effort.

Fourth, even if the organization wants to build its Web site as the destination for its content, in the case of multimedia the issue isn’t whether people watch or use it on a company’s site, the challenge is to try to expand distribution opportunities so people can experience it wherever works best for them. That’s how organizations will be able to build larger or more valuable audiences. What once might have just been a newspaper or magazine story - even a special one - can now be distributed on television, the Web and mobile devices. In addition, there’s the possibility of DVD sales, educational software, etc. Find ways to expand the reach of content. And to make money from doing so.

Fifth, don’t lower standards. Raise them. Of course there’s a place for “one-man band” journalism and quick news clips. And user contributed video could play a huge role in interesting new approaches to multimedia storytelling. But multimedia takes more work and it’s vying for attention in a very competitive space, a global space. To build long-term value and a long lifespan for work, make sure to focus on quality projects that will stand out. If a company is going to spread its content across many platforms, the work has to be deserving of the effort.

Sixth, don’t think this work can be done by asking individual journalists to do more or to become experts in every multimedia skill. Yes, everyone working in a multimedia operation should have an understanding of the contribution of each member of the team. But it’s critical to have a focus and set priorities. Otherwise the danger is that content producers will burn out and that multimedia will just mean quick hit digital stories. It’s much more than that - or should be.

Seventh, organizations should think of themselves as curators of content as much as they think of themselves as creators of content. Typically, there are many creative people in any area. Involve them. Leverage what they’re already doing. They could be establishing a base of work that news organizations can evaluate and then extend. Look for good work. Ask whether with a little more effort it could be produced for distribution on multiple platforms.

Eighth, involve the public. Make it possible for everyone to participate. This applies especially to geographically based content companies. Look for ways to partner with other news organizations, not just regionally or nationally, but also around the world. Any news organization now can have a global audience, if it produces the right kind of work. How about producing work that would be of interest to people around the world? Everything from doing a shared project on how people worship to a project on what people eat to start the day. Multimedia can make people's world seem bigger and smaller at the same time. Ask which local stories might resonate with others because they tap into universal themes or issues. Why couldn’t people contribute video, audio or still images that together tell a larger story? News organizations could put out requests for content and guidelines for how to submit it.

Ninth, remember the importance of play. Create excitement by staging events where the public can participate and even produce work that will be tapped to chronicle the event. This might be seen as gimmicky, but don’t think of that as all bad. If an event is “real,” if it generates passionate commitment, then it transcends any such concern. This is a way to help get people to think of traditional brands in a more expansive way and to build excitement around them. Here are a few examples of the personality and attitude that I think news organizations need to unleash if they want to play in this arena.

Stand By Me


Free Hugs


Where the hell is Matt


Noah a picture everyday


One Year in 40 seconds

I think all of these are suggestive of things news organizations could do.


Tenth, use multimedia as a way to reposition a news organization's brand. Today, the business side is seen by many as serving only the goal of profit. Relentless cost cutting sends a troubling message - to staff and communities. Multimedia could help a company reestablish its commitment to a purpose - to inform, inspire and entertain. Why? Because if a company pursued this path successfully, it would expand its reach and grow the types of work it does. It would be a visible manifestation of its commitment to being a “content” company rather than a generator of cash.

In the end, why bother doing any or all of this? Because technology has opened exciting new opportunities for content companies. If they don’t seize them, somebody else will. The digital world has opened a space they can enter to connect in an even deeper way with their community and the world, give their journalists even more satisfying jobs and strengthen their financial health.

Lessons from the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop: Day 5

Day 5 was the closing day of the first MediaStorm methodology workshop. It was the least structured day of the week, giving the five participants and Brian Storm the chance for a freewheeling exploration of issues and ideas. You can read more about the previous days on my blog: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4.

We began with an excellent presentation on gear by Bob Sacha, someone I had come to know when MediaStorm worked with the Rocky Mountain News during the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Key point: Headphones are the single most important piece of equipment for multimedia. And you have to wear them all the time when recording a story. Bob argued that you should wear ear-covering headphones so that the only sound you hear is the sound your listeners will hear. I came away convinced.

What was incredible sitting at a table at the center of their loft-like workplace was not only how small the equipment has become, but especially how its cost is now such that it's legitimate to say that "anybody" can buy equipment to produce professional quality documentary journalism. This type of equipment would have been unavailable just years ago or would have required huge outlays making it unattainable for essentially everybody. This, of course, is one of the most exciting aspects of this era of journalism.

Bob recommended purchasing prosumer equipment, which often costs a third to a quarter of what professional gear would cost. This gear made for consumers is professional quality. He recommended the Think Tank multimedia bag. Pretty amazing.

Here's a link to the list of gear Mediastorm recommends. Some of it isn't the very latest, because it reflects the gear they use or have used.

Most of the emphasis of the sound recording sessions was on in-person interviews, but there's a good tutorial on recording interviews over the phone at transom.org.

At the end of the presentation, one thing became clear in our discussion. In general, it's not reasonable to expect one person to do everything required for multimedia - at least of the type produced by MediaStorm. One person can't do all these things at the same time. The work needs time. That's not to say there isn't a place for quickly produced reports. There is. But to do memorable work, collaboration is key. People need time. Brian's view, and it makes sense, is that it's better to do fewer things better than to try to do many things and have none of them be extraordinary or memorable. You train people what to expect when they come to your Web site. If it's not interesting, there are plenty of other places on the Web to go.

The complexity of the equipment is amazing. In the past, someone would have trained to do sound. Somebody else would have gone to film school to learn cinematography. Someone else would have gone to journalism school to learn still photography. And all three would have had to learn the most important - and difficult - skill: storytelling. Without it, none of the other skills matter.

It's one thing to train students in all these areas. It makes sense early on to train a student or employee to be a one-man band. Everyone should understand the complete picture and have a feel for what it takes to do each job. But people also need to learn to collaborate, or at least that was our consensus view.

One way to do that in a college setting, and to encourage people to pull their weight, is to have everybody on a team rate the others, as well as to have the professor provide the grade. Given that when students are learning the technology they might not have a good grasp of story, another good recommendation was that beginners (like me) be asked to produce an explanatory piece using the equipment. For example, something as simple as how to make pasta or how to make a pot of coffee. Anything with a structure.

We talked a lot about the business and how new companies should structure themselves, with one key observation: Be as diverse as you can in sources of revenue. Don't have one client or one source of revenue.

I'll come back to the workshop and my reflections on multimedia in a final blog post to conclude this series after I've had a few more hours to absorb the week.

But I can tell you I came away at the end of the five days with one clear feeling - this is the greatest period for creative people ever.

Thanks to Brian Storm and the crew at MediaStorm for making the week happen and to my fellow participants - Dave Carlson, Tavia Gilbert, Kim Komenich and Janet Reeves - for helping make it so enriching.

Lessons from the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop: Day 4

Day 4 at the first MediaStorm methodology workshop explored social networking, blogging, gear and Final Cut Pro. The latter session was so deep that there’s little I can share from it. However, what follows are a few lessons from the day. You can read previous blog posts to learn about Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.

Before I get into the lessons of the day, here is a link to some valuable MediaStorm documents.

You'll find a list of recommended gear and insight into Final Cut Pro.

Software Tips
• Tips from the MediaStorm Final Cut Pro workflow by Eric Maierson pdf(PDF)
• Video Tutorial: Producing with Final Cut Pro
Tips from the MediaStorm Compression Workflow: from Quicktime .mov to .flv, by Eric Maierson

You’ll also find advice on audio at the same location.

As for lessons on social media, Jessica Stuart, the workshop director, told us that Facebook is the “hub” of MediaStorm’s social networking efforts. She said that in February of this year usage of social networking sites exceeded usage of web-based e-mail.

To make it manageable to operate in a social networking world, she recommended you schedule it into your day. Otherwise it can eat an enormous amount of time. She reminded us that you have be be willing to converse and interact if you want to participate in this world. “You have to be willing to be you. Be real, be open, be involved.”

She encouraged us to secure our user names on all major sites now, even if we’re not going to use them. It’s too much of a loss to find out you can’t use the name you’re known by because somebody else grabbed it first.

We also discussed Twitter and other tools and how to use them as part of our work.

In discussing video on social networking sites, I learned of tubemogul, which allows you to upload video to many sites at once.

We also discussed blogging, and especially how to set up a blog in wordpress, which has become the clear leader in this area, and is a real content management system.
Sharethis.com is a site to get code to allow you to build sharing into your blog.

As for Final Cut, what amazed me was that a MediaStorm documentary has 16 tracks, 6 for visuals and 10 for audio. They have a very clear way of organizing their work to allow them to focus on the creative work rather than spending time trying to find things. They encouraged us to establish a clear and consistent system of folders and labels. Keep similar things together.

A long day, that ended with a trip to the city to hear a powerful presentation from the founder of Charity:Water, an amazing nonprofit bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Worth checking out and an example of a nonprofit that could use the kind of work that MediaStorm produces. There are many other than news organizations with important stories to tell.

Lessons from the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop: Day 3

Day 3 at the first MediaStorm methodology workshop got technical. Here are some lessons. If you missed previous installments in this series, here are links to Day 1 and Day 2.

The emphasis of the morning was on the importance of audio. Audio, Brian Storm told us, gives your subjects a voice. But he acknowledged that it’s difficult to do. It requires that journalists learn new skills. It’s “a craft.” But in his view, audio is more important to multimedia than visuals. Without audio you don’t have anything cinematic. Audio drives the whole process.

In building a multimedia story, you start with what they call “a radio cut.” It’s the sound track. Then you layer images onto the radio cut. One track for interviews. Another for ambient sound. Brian encouraged photographers to inverview the people they photograph for 10-15 minutes. Think of the audio interview as an environmental portrait. The journalist should control the situation. Get close to your subject. Lean forward. Place the microphone two inches off to the side of the subject’s mouth, in the shadow of the chin. Hold it with your fingers, not in the palm of your hand. That way you’ll get good sound. Brian emphasizes that audiences are more forgiving of weak visuals than they are of poor audio. That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to audio. If you can, turn off the radio. Stay away from a fridge. Beware the electronics in an office. Turn off cell phones. Look for places with soft surfaces to do the interviews. Set your sound levels once and leave them.

Remember, with audio you’re going to cut out your questions when you build the story. So don’t ask questions that lead to single word answers. Ask double-barreled questions. Ask questions in pairs or series. You’ll be more likely to get usable results. For example, “What is your name, what do you do and how long have you been doing it?” While doing the interview, think about whether you’re getting sound that you could use to open or close the story. Listen and think like an editor. Do not respond audibly when people are talking. Keep quiet. Ask sense-related questions. Ask people to describe what they heard, saw, smelled, felt. Ask for memories. Ask process questions. How did you meet, for example. Remember to record room tone for 30 seconds at the start and end of the interview. Finally, always ask whether there’s anything you didn’t ask, but should have, and whether there's anybody else you should talk with.

Separate from the interview, look for natural sounds that provide texture, mood, context or emotion. Record at least 30 seconds of each type of sound. Then provide an audio caption so you’ll remember what it was when you begin editing.

Photographers should have a basic audio kit of a recorder, headphones and a microphone. You must always wear your headphones when doing an interview to know what your recording will sound like. (I’ll provide a link to recommended equipment as soon as possible.)

Learn how to use your equipment so well that you can work with it in the dark. You don’t want to remind the subject that he’s being interviewed by having to mess around with gear during a conversation.

You can’t shoot photos and record audio at the same time. You need to accept that you will miss sound when you do pictures and will miss pictures when you do sound. Why not just do video, where you can shoot and record at the same time? An audio interview is more intimate than a video interview.

Brian advises that people should learn audio first, before learning how to shoot video. “Sound is the hardest part of the process,” he said. “Great audio makes great video. Video can follow.” Once a photographer becomes comfortable with audio, he said, they’ll always want it with a story.

Shooting photographs for multimedia is also different, because a multimedia story needs so many more photographs than a newspaper or magazine story. Ten photos exceptional for a magazine or newspaper story. In multimedia, you can use 20 pictures in a minute. If you shoot video, it will raise the quality of the still photography in a piece because you won’t have to burn off so many pictures to cover sound. Think on average three seconds per picture. That could mean you need 100 photos for a five-minute project. That’s hard to do. When shooting stills for multimedia, shoot like a cinematographer. Shoot wide, medium, close up and extreme close up for every scene. Use sequencing techniques to capture motion. Use rack focus (switching focus so that in one frame the foreground is in focus and the background out of focus and in another the background is in focus and the foreground is out of focus). Verticals don’t work well in multimedia. (Of course you can use them, but just as a rule the frame is going to be horizontal.) Always try to get copies of personal photos to have them available to help a story.

Shoot video for action/movement/immediacy. Be in the moment with video. Shoot still images for the decisive moments.

Shoot tight clean portraits of everybody who speaks in a story. Shoot them with clean backgrounds. Shoot copies of pictures on the wall, on the refrigerator, in photo albums, wherever you can find them.

When shooting video, don’t chase the action as you would if you were shooting stills. Let the action happen through the shot. Wait for the action to come to you. Keep the stage still. Start recording before the subject enters the frame and don’t stop until the subject has exited the screen. Frame each shot carefully, as carefully as you would frame stills.

Use a tripod. Use a tripod. Use a tripod. When you’re not shooting with a tripod, shoot wide angle and stay totally focused on keeping your body stable.

Don’t use zoom. Use zoom to focus between shots. You’ll cut between a wide shot and a tight shot. You need to shoot wide, medium, close up and extreme close up for every scene. Each shot should be from a different angle. Think 30 degrees different from previous shot. A guide is that every situation needs four different angles, eight unique locations and each shot to hold for at least 12 seconds.

We also discussed typography. It might seem obvious, but it’s key to make sure viewers will be able read text. If in doubt, make type bigger. Good web site for typography: ilovetypography.com. Another good site to look at for typography, Good magazine.

One tool that seems critical to help people work together effectively is Googledocs. This allows mutliple people to work on the same document. You won’t have millions of different versions floating around. I can attest to its value from using it for RedBlueAmerica.com, a short-lived national Web site I developed for the E.W. Scripps Co.

Another topic was interactive design. Too much to describe and too technical. A good Web site for technical questions: kirupa.com.

Finally, two more interesting sites we heard about: thebrowser.com and headbutler.com. Both worth checking out.

Onward...

Lessons from the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop: Day 2

I'm at the first-ever MediaStorm methodology workshop in New York City. I'm trying to make it possible for people to follow my blog to get a sense of what the five participants are learning every day. Today Day 2. Here's where you can read about Day 1.

It's important to point out that there are many aspects of the class I can't share, not because I'm not willing or MediaStorm isn't willing, but because the class involves discussion of specific images and video sequences. We talk about them while they're on screen and it's very difficult to recreate that experience without doing a Webcast of the sessions.

We started Day 2 with an emphasis on quality. "Everything is driven by quality," Brian Storm said. "If you have a product that rocks, people will blog it or share it on social networks. That’s the new measure of success for us."

Something for newspaper folks to think about: In the mid '90s, video had to make you say, "Holy shit, dude come here you, have to see this." Why? Because it took so long to download. Now the problem with video on many newspaper sites is that it's not good enough. At some point, the audience is not going to hit the play button because they'll have been trained that the video isn't worth their time. That's why MediaStorm would recommend doing fewer pieces and making them better. Give people time to get them right. (To those who've worked with me who remember me encouraging them to be quick, because of the news value of video, that advice doesn't apply to compelling breaking news video.) You have to set a user expectation that the video will be worth the time, that the video will be special.

The work is expensive. So how to pay for it? MediaStorm's approach is to license to multiple mediums in multiple markets. Between television, web and portable devices, a multimedia news company can generate more streams of revenue. MediaStorm encourages media companies not to think of themselves as newspapers or magazines, but to do the necessary reporting, which will be more expensive, to expand their revenue and reach by distributing their work on television, computers and mobile devices, as well as in their print publications. If you spend more time to do the story, you can have three more channels: TV, computers and mobile devices.

As for fees, Brian's a "big believer" that there shouldn't be a standard for fees. "If we start charging for time, that's painful. Paying by time incents people in the wrong direction." You should make the piece the length it works best. He thinks photo pricing also misguided. Paying less for smaller usage incents customers to run photos poorly. Charge more for smaller pictures, Brian recommends. Incent people to run your pictures big.

We spent a lot of time discussing Iraqi Kurdistan, an awesome piece by Ed Kashi.



In-house, they called the project "the flip book," after the cartoon books that children animate just by flipping the pages. The story, done in sequences of still images set to music, explores how motion and a frozen moment can work together. I thought it was wonderful.

MediaStorm's biggest revenue generator is as a production studio. The company gets hired to tackle specific projects: cinematic narratives, interactive applications or full-on complete web sites.

An example of cinematic narrative we discussed extensively was The Sandwich Generation. Also worth viewing.



As I said, it's difficult in a blog to replicate our discussion. But here are a few examples of what we discussed that I think work without seeing the video. First, MediaStorm's philosophy is to use video to show motion and activity and still photography to show decisive moments. In the future, a single camera will be able to freeze frame video to capture the decisive moment, so the photographer will need to use only one camera. But they don't feel we're there yet.

Think character. That's how you get people to care. And finally, what is the apex of your narrrative arc? There has to be one. (If you watch this video, it's when the old man - the father - is in his house/garage as it's being cleaned out. The sound is painful. He's hearing it. And then he tries to save his old golf clubs. Very powerful.)

Finally, Brian emphasized the importance of sound quality. Even more important than video quality. "Bad sound will destroy the piece really quickly." It's painful/difficult to listen to.

The first question Brian asks photographers who bring him a story: "Got sound?" You can see why. What sounds does to a photo story is magical. It gives meaning.

As for story structure, do not break things into chapters unless you can playlist it, meaning it goes automatically from one chapter to the next. Otherwise, it's too easy to lose people.

NGOs and non profits are funding high-quality multimedia work. Just as with investigative reporting, these are other places to look for funding.

I'll have more on methodology in my Day 3 post, but one key thing I can share without further context is how Brian described their work process: "We work from subtraction. We look at everything." They're looking for the story in the work.

We talked a lot about a great piece by Brenda Ann Kenneally, which was a magazine story and audio slide show for The New York Times.



It was a wonderful magazine story about the children. But in video, the focus becomes a love story.

The story is an example of the kind of access good still photographers work to get, the kind of comfort-level they can build with their subjects. Very intimate and real.

One final lesson: Story trumps technique every time. Of course technique is important and people need to learn it. But if they don't have a good story, technique won't matter. And one thing clear about story, from looking at MediaStorm's work, is that it must be focused and disciplined. A story can't have everything. Everything in it must serve the story. (Those last two sentences are my editorializing.)

Lessons from the MediaStorm Methodology Workshop: Day 1

This week I'm attending a methodology workshop at MediaStorm, the multimedia production studio that in my view produces the most sophisticated storytelling in journalism right now.

Each day, after the workshop, I'll try to share a few of the insights I've gleaned from our class. There are five of us working with MediaStorm for the week: Janet Reeves, former senior editor for photography and multimedia at the Rocky Mountain News; David Carlson, who holds the James M. Cox, Jr. Foundation/The Palm Beach Post professorship in New Media Journalism at the University of Florida College of Journalism and also is the director of the university's Center for Media Innovation and Research; Tavia Gilbert, an award-winning audio producer and actress; and Kim Komenich, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer with The San Francisco Chronicle who left the paper earlier this year to become an assistant professor for multimedia studies at San Jose State University.

Day 1, with Brian Storm:

The two most important words of MediaStorm's philosophy: quality works.

When you do something really great on multiple platforms, vs. just for a single format, you will reach a larger audience and make more money. (Or at least you have that potential.)



The first story we examined in detail was Driftless, Stories from Iowa by Danny Wilcox Frazier, Chapter Six, which Brian described as a perfect example of a MediaStorm story. Totally worth looking at. It's a beautiful story. What makes it a perfect example of what MediaStorm is trying to do is it's a small story about a huge issue. It's timeless. And it involves sophisticated integration of video and still photography. Something else that makes this a fine example of how MediaStorm works is that it started as a book and then expanded for multiple platforms. In Chapter Six, you see three photos from the book. But there are 35 still photographs in the piece.

The essence of multimedia, Brian says, is that 1 plus 1 equals 5. When you put the elements together in the right way something special happens that's bigger than the sum of the pieces.

The power of music. Brian said when he was at MSNBC he wasn't allowed to use music, because it was considered editorializing. It can be the quickest way to destroy a piece. But it's incredible to see how they use music to carry a piece.

Interactive storytelling doesn't work, in Brian's view. Very expensive to do and doesn't drive traffic. Confusing for the user. They have to figure it out. What works is to produce something where the user can press play and watch something. "Linear media flat-out works," he said.

What the company does is essentially documentary filmmaking for a new era. What's somewhat revolutionary about what MediaStorm does is that they're open to all media types. (I think it's also that whatever they produce is produced for all platforms. They output their work in many forms.)

The long-form work MediaStorm specializes in is "totally hard to do." They only work on personal projects, because they need the photographer to be fully invested. That way they'll do the extra leg work necessary for this kind of work. Without that commitment, he said, they'll fail.

One of Brian's personal goals is to get photographers to stop thinking of the book as the ultimate product. He wants to change that so they'll be giving friends their DVD in the future. He wants them to realize that the DVD (ie. multimedia) is the most important thing. Not that a book shouldn't be one of the products. But that the added dimensions of the DVD make it the richer product.




The next story we studied was "Intended Consequences" by Jonathan Torgovnik, a very powerful piece on women who were raped during the genocide in Rwanda and then bore the children of their attackers. The story has led to $500,000 in donations to put 1,500 kids through secondary school in Rwanda, Brian said. The piece started with an assignment by Newsweek. It became a moving and complex multimedia story.

E-mail used to be the company's most important marketing tool - until about a year ago. Now it's social networking that's most important. The power of sharing. A blogger in Russia linked to their site and traffic increased fifteen times for a week. Facebook is "epic" for MediaStorm now. It's the home page for so many people. The "grand daddy of them all."

If you produce projects at the highest level, important projects, affinity groups will spread awareness of them for you. That is "one of the most revolutionary things happening in journalism." It's why if you do something, you want it to be the definitive story on the topic. To do something in the middle tier is a waste. People will post and retweet something they think is fantastic.

An example of how the world has changed and the importance of viral came when iTunes passed Walmart as the No. 1 music retailer. It would have been impossible for MediaStorm to get its stories into Walmart. They're too small. On iTunes, it took the company four minutes and they didn't have to talk to a human being.

The company's business model and approach is based on patience. The stories have a long shelf life.

An interesting note: All the company's work fits on Brian's iPhone. He literally can carry everything they produce on a hand-held device. A cool sign of the times.

In this first post, I've avoided reporting on our conversation about how certain pieces are done or certain effects are achieved. Perhaps I'll touch on those issues in later posts. But they seem to be better-suited for the conference room, where we're actually breaking down the work and talking about how it's done - at least after Day 1.

Onward....