The Video Clip Factor

As a guy who has spent considerable career time in radio I am very interested in the boom presently underway in video clips. YouTube does 100 million short videos a day. CNN's various short news clip services stream about 5o million a month. There are cell phones everywhere with screens that are getting ready for more video. The iPod has already been updated to include it. How important will short videos be? And if you're in the print business, is it a deal breaker going forward? What about radio or audio streams -- a thing of the past? I sense the answer is yes and no. One thing I can tell you about the next generation is that they want text when they want text -- audio when they want to hear something and video when they want to see it. This is a reality and any one medium may be at a great disadvantage if all three experiences are not offered. Of course this isn't the end of the world. It's just an indicator that we need to think differently. More texting events for radio. Easily available video for online print publications. Audio is always in demand by consumers but not necessarily alone. If I programmed a radio station today I'd have a text event and video event for every element in the format even if all I could broadcast is audio. After all, a mobile device is always near today's consumer. All of this is exciting to me. We have a chance to re-invent traditional media with some of the tools of the interactive era and all that is necessary is companies that encourage out-of-the-box thinking and big ideas.