YouTube Direct gets San Francisco tryout
Google's video site is working with a local TV station to a launch a new iteration of its YouTube Direct platform, which helps publishers tap video from amateur contributors.
Is YouTube getting into the local news business? No. Not really.
But! SF Weekly has a weird, confusing tale about YouTube's sort-of secretive efforts to launch a "local news experiment" in San Francisco. You can read the whole thing here, but the gist is that staffers at the Google site have tapped local bloggers, reporters, etc., to gauge their interest in a project where "citizen videographers--anyone with a video-capable phone or camera, really" helps cover local news.
Since the YouTube folks have been vague about what they're up to, and have told potential participants to "be discreet about who you speak with about it," the whole thing sounds vaguely ominous/exciting.
The reality, alas, is fairly dull.
It's this: YouTube is working with a San Francisco TV station to a launch a new iteration of its YouTube Direct platform, a person familiar with the site's plans tells me.
YouTube Direct is supposed to help publishers gather and distribute video from amateur contributors, by essentially plugging YouTube into their sites. The program has had a bit of a success when big media organizations like NPR or ABC's Good Morning America have used it.
But local news outlets, which could theoretically really use help from both YouTube and their own readers/watchers, haven't done much with it. So the idea is to use the San Francisco version as a showcase, and YouTube staffers are trying to pre-seed the effort by rounding up local contributors.
All pretty straightforward stuff. So why the sort-of cloak-and-dagger routine? Got me. I'm told that Google and the local station are planning on making an announcement about the launch next week--but really, this seems like something you just announce and then do. Simple, right?
Here, for the record, is YouTube's official comment on the matter:
We launched YouTube Direct in November, and it's been a great way for news organizations to easily leverage citizen reporting on YouTube. We're currently experimenting with new ways to make the platform more useful, and we'll have more to announce on that front soon.