This spring YouTube quietly started a new offering called News Near You. With it, YouTube intelligently senses what region you’re accessing their site from and serves up news stories from your local area.
Up to this point, it has been met with some fear by major news organizations, as YouTube’s parent company, Google, has played an arguably large role in delivering a near fatal blow to the newspaper business. And major TV news shows have a lingering fear that the same thing might happen to them with YouTube’s new offering.
That means that so far, some…but not many…major news organizations have jumped on board the News Near You bandwagon (it’s mostly local news affiliates). Which means that so far, the content for News Near You is being supplied by non-traditional sources…radio stations, colleges and independent producers.
It also means there is a potential (i.e. somewhat possible) golden opportunity for independent web video producers to earn money…for example, the average Joe with a video camera who shoots news pieces about what is going on in his local area.
Why is this? Well, you see YouTube displays ad’s on many of their News Near You videos. And they share the revenue they earn with the producers of those videos. Given that YouTube typically does not display ad’s on non-professional, user-generated video, it’s a way for someone to get their foot in a door that would otherwise remain closed.
As News Near You is still in it’s infancy, it’s way to early to tell if it will be a legitimate way for independent web video producers to earn a buck from their web videos. But if the concept interests you, it should definitely be awarded a spot on your radar.
Want to see what News Near You looks like in action? Click here to see an example.
Thank you Dave, It is now on my radar!