“We are putting a television studio in the middle of our newsroom.”
That’s the way , the Denver Post’s burgeoning video initiative, was first described to me. I was immediately hooked.
As part of a generation that no longer watches television on at pre-set times or even on a traditional TV — preferring instead of watch video on my computer and phone — I knew that I had to be involved. It took a very short time after joining The Post staff in November 2014 to realize that we were on to something incredibly special.
The staff of DPTV produce a huge amount of video in a small studio, hand-built by photographers and editors right in the middle of the award-winning newsroom, all published digitally, not over traditional airwaves. DPTV’s staple content is . She also interviews newsmakers, reporters and other subjects, digging deeper into some of the organization’s biggest stories.
It expanded quickly to include a , plus a , The Cannabist’s editor. The above video shows how we move and change sets throughout the day.
The studios include three stages — our main stage, which handles the brunt of our larger shows; a news stage and a new stand-up stage near our sports desks. The Sports Show, The Cannabist Show, Reaction Shot and Game On are all shot in “Studio One”, the main stage. Right in front of that is Hughes’ desk, where she does “Up-To Date” five days a week.
We fire up the studio lights each morning at 8 a.m. and continue virtually uninterrupted for 12 hours a day, five days a week. The tight schedule requires a well-choreographed dance of producers and technicians flipping stages, spinning cameras, updating and maintaining studios. News organizations such as our own will increasingly embrace video as we continue our transformation into a digitally focused organization.
Recently we’ve built a second studio, Studio B, and are designing all new programming for the Post s audience. and are the first regular shows coming out of this new feature, with many more to come.
Vince Chandler, a 2012 graduate of Penn State, joined The Denver Post as a video producer in November 2014. You can email him at vchandler@denverpost.com or follow him on Twitter @VinnieChant
