Web Video Editing: How-To Basics for B2B Editors

B2B editors are increasingly getting into Web video. Here's a detailed, step-by-step walk-through to help you get a vivid picture of the editing process from a fellow B2B editor who today produces and edits some 40 videos a year. Other aspects of the video process will be covered but the focus is on editing with the standard editing platform: Final Cut Express. We will walk through the actual editing process of a short video.

We will show you how to:
  • transfer video from your camera to the editing platform.
  • edit video to create a sequence (Final Cut's term for the edited video).
  • add transitions.
  • add music.
  • add voiceovers.
  • enhance badly shot or lighted footage.
  • export to a playable file.
Rob Freedman, senior editor of Realtor Magazine, has recently made the crossover to multimedia journalism and will offer his "been there, lived through that" experience so you can learn his lessons--and avoid his mistakes.

Event Details

Date: Friday, February 26, 2009

Time: 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. EST

Location: Your computer

Cost: $20 for members, $45 for non-members

To register:

Option 1: Pay online. Use the web form below to pay online via credit card or PayPal. Instructions for obtaining webinar access will be emailed to you once you have paid.

Member Status





Option 2: Pay by check or pay for multiple registrations at one time (regardless of payment method). Fill out this registration form (76K Word doc) and return it to Christina Pellett with your payment by February 25. Webinar access information will be provided once you have registered.

Questions? Contact Steven Roll at b2beditor@gmail.com.

About Rob Freedman

Robert Freedman is Senior Editor of Realtor Magazine, published by the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C., and past president of ASBPE and the ASBPE Educational Foundation. He is involved in all aspects of multimedia publishing and produces weekly Realtor Magazine news videos. Robert is the author or editor of several books on business communications, including Journalism That Matters (Marion Street Press) and Best Practices of the Business Press (Kendall-Hunt).
 

Obituary: Bernie Knill

By Warren Hersch
ASBPE President

As more trade magazines focus limited resources on realizing a Web-first or platform agnostic strategy, B2B editors are finding it harder to dedicate time to in-depth investigative reporting and to championing positions that can profoundly impact the industries they cover. That’s unfortunate, because such game-changing content helps editors build a loyal readership, distinguish their publications, and win editorial awards.

Bernie Knill, who passed away on Jan. 22 at age 82, understood this as well as anyone else. As ASBPE’s inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award recipient in 2000 and the former editor-in-chief of Material Handling Management, Knill built a reputation for such cutting-edge editorial and industry advocacy during his 43-year tenure at MHM, starting in 1957 and ending with his retirement in 2000.

The B2B editor as advocate

One cause to which Knill dedicated himself for more than a decade was regulatory relief for manufacturers of vertical reciprocating conveyors (including freight elevators and various types of lifts). When state elevator inspectors sought to mandate the same safety and operating standards for VRCs that applied to passenger elevators, Knill swung into action.

He authored a monthly column, the “Red Tag Report,” that explained how the inspectors were illegally depriving VRC buyers of low-cost alternatives to expensive freight elevators. Knill’s advocacy on behalf of the industry played a part in rolling back the worst of the state practices.

Knill’s award-winning editorial proved crucial in exposing other industry problems. Among them: software snafus that plagued the luggage-handling system at the newly opened Denver International Airport in the early 1990s; and the need for equipment- and site-specific training for lift truck operators. Spurred by Knill’s reporting and the combined efforts of industry and government, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) adopted the Powered Industrial Truck Operator Training Standard.

“Bernie was very much an industry advocate,” says Tom Andel, Knill’s successor as MHM’s editor-in-chief from 2000 to 2005. “He had a good instinct for what was important to his audience. He knew how to connect the problem at issue with industrial material handling in a way that made for compelling reporting.”

And, it seems, with an ease that would be the envy of any B2B editor. In the pre-computer era, adds Andel, Knill would compose an article in his head before typing it, without the mental anguish that so often attends writer’s block.

Award-winning mentor

He was also, says Andel, a role model for his staff, guiding them on the tools and techniques of cutting-edge reporting. The mentoring had the desired effect: During his tenure, MHM won five Neal awards. In 1992, the material handling industry honored Knill with the Reed-Apple Award — the industry’s highest honor. That same year, the Material Handling Management Society presented him with the William T. Shirk Award for outstanding service and contributions to the field.

Bernie Knill, in sum, leaves behind a lifetime of achievement — and an example to live by. The material handling field, and we in the B2B editorial community, are forever indebted to him.
 

Retirement Lures Vern Henry Away

Advanstar Communications corporate editorial director Vern Henry accepting the ASBPE Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001
Advanstar Communications' Corporate Editorial Director Vernon Henry retired Tuesday.

“…Vern created and led Advanstar's Editorial Audit & Review program, which became the industry standard for an ongoing editorial improvement process,” said Advanstar's CEO Joe Loggia in a letter to employees earlier this month.

Loggia continued:
Over the years, the Editorial Audit program has helped our editors and publishers deliver editorial that is relevant and of the highest quality for our audiences. Vern played an integral role in making sure that we delivered on our editorial commitment to our customers.
In addition to his work on the Editorial Audits, Vern has assisted in the development of several start-up publications, initiated an ongoing editorial training program, developed and implemented the Magazine of the Year competition and created a college student intern program in conjunction with American Business Media.
Under his watch, Advanstar has compiled an impressive record in the Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Awards. Since 1994, Advanstar has had 27 winners and 55 finalists, including a Grand Neal and a Grand Neal runner-up.
The internal memo highlight's Vern's career:
  • 2005 American Business Media Crain Award for a distinguished editorial career
  • Recipient of the American Society of Business Publication Editors Lifetime Achievement Award, 2001
  • Twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize
  • Inducted into the Journalism Hall of Fame
“Vern's contributions to Advanstar have been invaluable and I want to thank him for his more than 25 years of dedication and hard work. We will all miss his passion for journalism and wealth of editorial expertise,” Joe wrote in the memo.

The ASBPE National President, Warren Hersch, said this about ASBPE’s 2001 LAA winner:
Henry created and led Advanstar's editorial audit and review program, which gained renown as a process for achieving ongoing editorial improvement. During his 25 years at Advanstar, Henry also assisted in the development of several start-up publications, initiated an ongoing editorial training program, developed and implemented the Magazine of the Year competition and created a college student intern program in conjunction with American Business Media. Under his watch, Advanstar garnered numerous industry awards.
Colleague Abe Peck, director of Business to Business Communication said:
For a dozen years, I was Vern's co-auditor as Advanstar's Magazine Reviews evolved into Brand Audits. Over time, I christened Vern "the shop steward," in recognition of his support for his editorial and design colleagues and his great commitment to their continued success. Nobody has more integrity and more respect for our dynamic craft.
ASBPE wishes Vern all the best in retirement.

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Web Video Editing: How-To Basics for B2B Editors

B2B editors are increasingly getting into Web video. Here's a detailed, step-by-step walk-through to help you get a vivid picture of the editing process from a fellow B2B editor who today produces and edits some 40 videos a year. Other aspects of the video process will be covered but the focus is on editing with the standard editing platform: Final Cut Express. We will walk through the actual editing process of a short video.

We will show you how to:
  • transfer video from your camera to the editing platform.
  • edit video to create a sequence (Final Cut's term for the edited video).
  • add transitions.
  • add music.
  • add voiceovers.
  • enhance badly shot or lighted footage.
  • export to a playable file.
Rob Freedman, senior editor of Realtor Magazine, has recently made the crossover to multimedia journalism and will offer his "been there, lived through that" experience so you can learn his lessons--and avoid his mistakes.

Event Details

Date: Friday, February 26, 2009

Time: 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. EST

Location: Your computer

Cost: $20 for members, $45 for non-members

To register:

Option 1: Pay online. Use the web form below to pay online via credit card or PayPal. Instructions for obtaining webinar access will be emailed to you once you have paid.

Member Status





Option 2: Pay by check or pay for multiple registrations at one time (regardless of payment method). Fill out this registration form (76K Word doc) and return it to Christina Pellett with your payment by February 25. Webinar access information will be provided once you have registered.

Questions? Contact Steven Roll at b2beditor@gmail.com.

About Rob Freedman

Robert Freedman is Senior Editor of Realtor Magazine, published by the National Association of Realtors in Washington, D.C., and past president of ASBPE and the ASBPE Educational Foundation. He is involved in all aspects of multimedia publishing and produces weekly Realtor Magazine news videos. Robert is the author or editor of several books on business communications, including Journalism That Matters (Marion Street Press) and Best Practices of the Business Press (Kendall-Hunt).

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Why New Publishers Need Quality-Driven Editorial Agenda

By Howard Rauch

You may have noticed that I am now chairing ASBPE’s ethics committee. As part of an orientation program, I read copies of all ethics guides posted in our site’s Industry Links section. What most guides have in common is an initial emphasis on a mandate to consistently deliver the highest possible level of editorial quality.

Reading through the guides, I was reminded of the reality that quality is more easily achieved when publishers enthusiastically endorse that goal. In today’s tough market, there clearly is concern that such support has been waning. So editors must take positive steps to re-enlist publishers, especially those new to the position, in a vital cause.

One possible solution materialized during a recent consulting assignment. My client and I had been discussing how to provide guidance for new publishers with relatively little editorial background. In those cases where a newly appointed publisher has such background, the supervisory challenge is easily met. But suppose we’re talking about a star salesperson with limited involvement on the other side. What then in terms of making appropriate decisions regarding matters of editorial content and/or performance? Sometimes the issues involved prove elusive even for experienced editorial managers.

After some additional mulling, I submitted a list of challenges – an editorial agenda of sorts – that could be followed, no matter what the new publisher’s background:
  • Maintain or increase the frequency with which authoritative content appears. In this case, “authoritative” includes statistical reports. Also explore possibilities for conducting more Q&A interviews with top authorities from all industry segments (yes, that includes advertisers). Organize executive roundtables at conventions where publisher and/or editor functions as moderator.
  • In conjunction with the editorial staff, create at least one A/V presentation that can be delivered at important conventions or during executive sessions at advertiser/agency premises.
  • Write a regular column that is authoritative in its own right. The column should be totally different in direction from the editor’s page. However, it must reflect an excellent grasp of industry issues that stems from insider contact with leading movers/shakers.
  • Explore possibilities for additional special projects in the form of quarterly supplements, one-shot white papers and/or webinars.
  • When it comes to e-news, resist the temptation to load up with all the obligatory vendor-sourced stuff that has traditionally burdened many print sections. Web visitors are looking for the highest-value, insider-like reporting. That means plenty of originality and enterprise, elements that seem to be missing from many sites.
  • Last but not least, defend the editorial budget so that efforts to maintain existing high-quality content are not discouraged.
The points raised here are merely the tip of the iceberg in a very complex area. One implied strategy is that salespeople should become more involved in editorial matters well before any sudden promotion to the publisher ranks. Of course, by the same token, editors should become more clued in on marketing strategy in the event they become the next choice for publisher responsibilities. It could happen!

Howard Rauch is president of Editorial Solutions Inc., a consultancy focusing on B2B magazines. Rauch is the 2002 recipient of ASBPE’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

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TABPI Twitterfest

By Paul Heney

Last October, TABPI, ASBPE’s international partner organization, launched a creative new way to use Twitter. Deemed TABPI Twitterfest, this two-day event brought together a multitude of B2B editors from the U.S., the U.K., South Africa, Australia, and other countries, to chat about current editorial topics.

I’m happy to announce that the second TABPI Twitterfest will be held from Feb. 18-19.

What is TABPI Twitterfest? It’s similar to an open chatroom, where B2B editors across the globe can talk about issues and ask questions. We’ll be focusing on one primary topic for this TABPI Twitterfest: How do you manage the separation of church and state (editorial and sales) in new media? Do you treat online content as having the same rules? What about webinars? How about in-person roundtables or conferences? Are the rules the same, or is there more leeway off the printed page? If you feel pressure from the sales side, how do you counter it?

You can participate in several ways:

1. Join Twitter and post Tweets on Feb. 18 and 19. These 140-character messages must contain #tabpi in order to be a part of Tweetfest, and other editors around the world will see your Tweets.

2. Point your browser to www.tabpi.org, where we’ll have a widget with the live feed from Twitterfest. You can also go to search.twitter.com/search?q=tabpi and watch what other editors worldwide are talking about.


3. After watching online what others are saying, you can also join in on the conversation at any time. While we’re encouraging editors to talk about the main topic, you’re free to discuss other B2B topics that might come up.

The first Twitterfest featured nearly 200 Tweets from around the globe, and many more people simply watching the activity.

We understand that time zones across the globe make things a little more difficult for an event like this, hence the two-day window. All editors are encouraged to start Tweeting with #tabpi in the Tweet starting on Thursday morning, the 18th, when they arrive at work.

The main goal of TABPI Twitterfest is starting dialogue and exchanging ideas between editors in far-flung geographic areas. But a very important secondary goal is to give B2B editors an opportunity to try out Twitter in a friendly, non-threatening environment, to see how it works, to determine if there is anything that might translate to their publication’s industry.

As journalists, we should be willing to step outside our comfort zones and see what the readers of tomorrow are doing. I hope you’ll consider participating, and look forward to seeing your Tweets on Feb. 18.

Paul is the president of the TABPI and past president of the ASBPE.

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10 Trends that Could Make (or Break) Our Editorial Careers

By Jim Sulecki

Rare is the opportunity to see the beginning of a new media platform, and rarer still to be in a position to help shape it. Yet in the digital age, this is precisely the fortuitous place that we early 21st-century journalists occupy. As was the case with the pioneers of television, many of the approaches we take today to online media will no doubt be refined over time but they also will help to define this completely new way to view and describe the world.

This portends great things for B2B editors and writers, and especially for those who can retain their journalistic backbone while shaping a whole new outer identity. Like early TV journalists trained in radio who first merely read the news to the eye of the camera before discovering television’s potential for visuals, we must put aside our own print assumptions and adapt the online medium as a new and unprecedented means of multiplatform communication and interaction.

Here, in no particular order, are 10 trends – currently in various stages of adoption – that have the potential to make or break our editorial careers, depending on how well we adapt.

1. We will be measured. Gone are the days when we as print journalists could proclaim an article a success if we received a handful of favorable calls and letters or emails. Today the online brand with the most opens, unique visitors and pageviews wins. And this will be true for individual writers and articles as well. Audience response is not everything – there always will be room for the important story that absolutely must be published – but metrics increasingly will be how the money people keep score.

2. Our content will become “co-creative” with our audiences’. That is, we’re going to share more and more of the authorship of our media products with the people who consume them. Article comments and online polls have been joined by sparks of dense, peer-to-peer interactions in online communities and growing numbers of blogs by industry experts – natural descendants to magazine columns. Coming now or soon: far more audience-supplied text, images and video, which itself will spin off more audience interaction. And how long will it be before our B2B sites begin true crowdsourcing – issuing “open calls” for collective, problem-solving contributions from our communities? B2B media historically has published articles identifying pressing industry challenges; now we can become instrumental in their very resolution.

3. Editorial-produced content will focus predominantly on analysis and exclusives. I think we’re in the middle of a long-term decline in the need for what used to be called “news of record.” Major company and people announcements, meeting news, and tradeshow coverage become commoditized when they hit everyone’s websites at the same time. Remember too that we’re not alone in using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. to follow the slipstream of daily developments. In the future we’ll spend less time and attention on non-exclusive news reporting and more of our efforts on (a) expert analysis of the meaning of and likely reverberations from breaking developments, and (b) editorial presentations that our brands alone are known for – rankings of companies and people, expert predictions, exclusive columns and blogs, etc. A deeper and more expert knowledge of our markets than often has been true in the past will be needed for us to do this.

4. We are in the entertainment – as well as information – business. B2B media historically has been resistant to much of the entertainment value of consumer media, but in an online realm where disparate worlds can and do collide, we may be at liberty – in fact, compelled – to discard some of our businesslike soberness in order to remain relevant. Some marketers already have discovered the great value of using humor in viral video, such as Blendtec and its faux-retro “Will It Blend?” series. Prediction: video and audio scriptwriting is in your future; in fact it already is reality in some corners of Meister Media, where we recently constructed a video production studio. Likewise, the very graphic presentation of B2B websites will evolve, as Flash and other forms of animation come to the editorial webpage as surely as consumer-like 4/c forms chased cover-to-cover b/w from our magazine pages. Editors increasingly will work with designers and web developers in “directing” animated presentations.

5. We (not publishers) will be the primary marketers of our own content. Posting our content, once the coda of our work, now is setting off a secondary step of “placing” links in social media; monitoring metrics; and modifying story angles, headlines, ledes, etc. in a gambit to reap more pageviews. Again, this duty will fall on the individual journalist as surely as the work of crafting the very story itself.

6. It’s nearly certain that no member of our audience is going to pay us or our publishers directly for our content. The Wall Street Journals of the world notwithstanding, the vast majority of the media will have little to no success turning around the deeply ingrained expectation for free content online. It’s been estimated that as few as 5% of online users will pay for digital news. As is the case with controlled circulation magazines, this reality will require editors to continue working with their publishers and their advertising community to attract commercial support that pays the freight.

7. The fading “bright line” between editorial and sales may get even dimmer. Publishers and salespeople are as challenged by the transition to online as editors are, with the famed “print dollars to digital dimes” devolution reducing revenue and profit margins for many media outlets. Publishers need audience engagement like never before. Web metrics are like nonstop readership studies – they’re conducted year-round, year in and year out. In order to generate more pageviews and, hence, ad impressions, the editor’s creativity and knowledge of audience needs and behavior will be in even more demand, sometimes directly in the service of the advertiser. This is not necessarily a bad thing – in fact, it’s probably good for the longer-term employment prospects of the editor – but emerging discussions about online ethics are very timely, as the differentiation between editorial and advertising is not always as distinguishable online as it is in print.

8. In just a few years our content will be just as likely to be read on mobile devices as on desktop and computer screens. In fact, as I wrote this, a report in min predicted that mobile will overtake desktop web in three years. Text for smaller screens must be pithier and more useful on the go, and its development even faster – nearly instantaneous. Graphic images must be more workmanlike and immediately useful, less ornamental. And video played on handhelds is on the verge of a breakthrough.

9. Print content will go the premium route. In a web-first environment our online content often will be priority one on a day-to-day basis, but that doesn’t mean print will go by the wayside. In my view, print publications will be developed for a more select audience worthy of the additional costs of printing and distribution. To coexist in an online world, print content will need to improve overall and reassert its unique value. I envision a return to larger trim sizes, higher-quality paper, and more lavish editorial and graphics – but again, for a more select audience, and likely at a less-than-monthly frequency.

10. The Millennials will want our content, but in different packages. I recently wrote in my emedia blog about my college-age daughter’s disinterest in newspapers. But a rejection of the medium doesn’t necessarily equate to a rejection of the content. Example: the Beatles are more popular now than they have been in years, in part due to Rock Band’s popularity with the iGeneration. The Millennials of course will demand content that is relevant to their specific needs – a challenge for every generation of journalists – but what they consume must be served in a context that they like and are used to: far from reliant on paper; mobile (of course); entertaining and irreverent (think Nickelodeon, their cable channel of preference growing up); interactive (think Facebook); and customizable (think iGoogle).

As a media platform the web already has been around for 15 years or more, so isn’t it funny that we should still be talking about how to adapt our content for its uses? I don’t think so. The early 2010s for emedia are roughly analogous to the early 1960s for TV, which is to say: the infrastructure has been laid, the technological novelty (and intimidation) is wearing off, the audience is reaching a critical mass – and attention now turns to the quality and value of the contents that are pulsing through this pipeline rather than on the technical marvel of the pipeline itself. For anyone involved in the creation of content, it’s an adventurous time to be alive.

Jim Sulecki has more than 25 years of editorial, publishing management and sales/marketing experience in business-to-business and consumer media. Currently he manages Meister Media Worldwide’s 20 brand and custom websites, 12 branded e-newsletters, custom e-media, webinars, and online video/audio, crafting sales and marketing strategies and developing online content and search engine optimization programs. He was named “Innovator in Business Media: Online Executives” by BtoB Media Business magazine in June 2009.

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FREE Design Challenge

By Paul Heney

I’m pleased to announce the launch of TABPI’s third Design Challenge, a free competition that we launched in 2008. The Challenge is meant to reward graphic creativity in the B2B industry, as well as serve as an educational exercise for other artists. Best of all, the overall winner receives $250, and his/her solution is highlighted on the TABPI website. We also include other selected entries, to illustrate the range of creativity and ideas.

This Design Challenge revolves around the puzzle of creating back to back monthly covers for a magazine that are related to the same story. How do you make a “Part I” and “Part II” cover that work together, but also stand alone? Complete details are at the TABPI website, http://www.tabpi.org/. Please pass this information on to your favorite designer, to let them exercise some creative muscle in the New Year.

At the website, you can also see winners of the first two Design Challenges, along with last year’s inaugural Editorial Challenge. We also list judges’ comments (positive and negative) for the winner and the honorable mentions. It’s a pretty fascinating exercise. I highly recommend checking it out.

The deadline for submitting Design Challenge solutions is Friday, Feb. 12.

Paul is the president of TABPI and past president of the ASBPE.

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Tabbie Awards Call for Entries

By Paul J. Heney

We’ve been hearing about the global economy for years now, and it’s true that for many of our publications, international growth is a reality.

The other side of this is that we have to realize that we’re not the only players in the game. B2B publications have existed for years in far-flung markets, from Singapore to Sweden. And many of them are doing great things for the industries they serve.

That’s really the thrust behind the Tabbie Awards, now entering into its seventh year. As a partner to ASBPE’s venerable Azbee Awards, the Tabbies are somewhat akin to the Golden Globes — the place where all the world’s English-language publications come together and are judged on the same journalistic and design qualities.

Any English-language B2B publications — anywhere in the world — are eligible for the Tabbies. If your publication is in Chicago, but you just cover regional or national events in your industry, that’s fine — just as it is for a publication in Western Canada or on the North Island of New Zealand that’s just a regional b2b.

I think that people are looking back at 2009 as a tough year, but also as a measuring stick of sorts. I hope that someday, when I look back at my own career, I’ll be happy with how hard I worked through those tough months, and proud of the work I did then. I know other publications that also did some exceptional things last year, and I’m excited to see what stories are told in this year’s Tabbie Awards.

I invite you to visit TABPI and download our Call for Entries, which includes all the categories, instructions and the entry form. The deadline for submissions is March 3, which will be here before you know it.

While you’re there, I encourage you to take a look at the awards page, which has links to previous contests. We have PDFs of many of the winning stories and departments (as well as images of the design winners), and I think it’s really quite instructive to look at these brilliant examples of what b2b can be, whether it’s done in Atlanta or Auckland.

Paul is the president of TABPI and past president of the ASBPE.

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