ASSIGNMENTEDITOR.COM TO END “NAPSTERIZATION” OF AMATEUR NEWS VIDEO
“Napster has been chastised for the sharing of music files, but truth be told, for years the TV news media has been doing the same thing with videotape that doesn't belong to them.” Jim Lichtenstein, CEO/Founder
Beginning in April, AssignmentEditor.com -“The Newsroom Home Page”- will launch a service that will change the news landscape. The site will become a marketplace for dramatic video and pictures for the news industry.
“Newsrooms everywhere use our site to do their jobs. Now we’re going to give them what they need the most to attract viewers and readers…amazing video and pictures,” said Jim Lichtenstein, the founder and CEO of AssignmentEditor.com.
“There are more than 20 million home video cameras in the U.S. alone. Each one of those cameras now has the potential to make its owner rich,” said Lichtenstein.
Since the advent of the camcorder, the most compelling video of our time has been shot by ordinary people with home video cameras. Amateur videographers have captured the beating of Rodney King, the crash of the Concorde and countless other events that lead newscasts and fill prime-time “reality” video shows.
These cameras have created a massive army of people, who end up covering news, sometimes better than the pro’s, simply because they happen to be some place where news is breaking. Usually, TV newsrooms offer a small fee to the owners of these tapes. The tapes are then fed, via satellite, to media outlets around the globe for free. The Rodney King video, for example, aired thousands of times all over the world. Initially, the man who shot it received only a few hundred dollars. Under the system devised by AssignmentEditor.com, that tape could have earned millions of dollars.
AssignmentEditor.com will act as exclusive broker of dramatic, newsworthy videotape and will sell it to media outlets via the website. Interested stations, networks, magazine shows and print outlets will buy limited rights to these images. No sharing will be permitted. And if individual news organizations want to re-use the tape after the first forty-eight hour license is up, they will have to buy it again. This will drastically change the practice of sharing video without the consent of the tape’s owner.
“Napster has been chastised for the sharing of music files, but truth be told, for years the TV news media has been doing the same thing with videotape that doesn’t belong to them,” Lichtenstein said. “It’s unfortunate, but there has never been a system for the legal owners of these dramatic videos to earn much money for their efforts. AssignmentEditor.com is in a perfect position to change that. Our users are the news decision makers of the world. They decide what hundred of millions of people see and read each day.” Lichtenstein continued, “We bring both sides together at AssignmentEditor.com. It makes perfect sense for us to be doing this.”
Amateurs, professional video “stringers”, as well as TV stations, will be able to sell their images through the new service that is expected to begin in April.
Videographers will be able to log on to the website for instructions on how to submit video. If AssignmentEditor.com agrees to accept the video, it will arrange to have the tape fed to its headquarters in Chicago. A streaming version of the video will be posted on the site for preview. Media organizations will be able to purchase rights to a video directly from the website. They will receive videos by a satellite feed. License to air or publish the video will be limited to 48 hours for each purchase.
People who believe they have exclusive, dramatic video should call 1-877-AEDITOR, or E-mail us at video@assignmenteditor.com.
In addition to the video service, AssignmentEditor.com is being rebuilt to further create a true online community for journalists. New features will include industry directories for satellite trucks, expert interviews, and job listings. Also look for chat and instant messaging for communicating with reporters and staff across the newsroom or around the world.
AssignmentEditor.com was created by Jim Lichtenstein in 1999 as a way to help his peers in the news industry do their jobs more efficiently. The site is now used in about 98 percent of the TV Newsrooms in the U.S., and gets traffic from over 80 countries around the world.
Jim Lichtenstein is an award winning news, and television movie producer, whose career spans 25 years. In October of 2000, he resigned his post as Managing Editor at CBS/WBBM-TV in Chicago, in order to become the full-time CEO of AssignmentEditor.com.
For more information call: Jim Lichtenstein at 312-432-9911, or e-mail at jim@assignmenteditor.com.
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