washingtonpost.com, the award-winning news and information Web site, today announced high-definition (HD) podcasts, designed to be viewed on HD television and computer screens, are now available on iTunes. In a first for a news organization, the award-winning documentary videos created by the washingtonpost.com multimedia team also conform to the highest specifications for the new Apple TV, making it easier than ever to view extremely quality news content anywhere, any time users want it.
“The demand for high quality video via the Web is surpassing that of the supply. Consumers are eager to adopt HD content to move away from the drab experience of watching it within a small box on their computer screens,” said Tom Kennedy, Managing Editor, Multimedia, washingtonpost.com, in the press release. “High-definition is the future of video; we have moved beyond standard definition to provide viewers with a higher standard. We knew we needed to evolve past web video to remain a relevant, innovative news source.”
All washingtonpost.com videos are shot with high-definition cameras, and the series available on iTunes is coded to play in 720p.
Examples of documentaries included in the series:
• National Journalism Award-winning introduction to the “Being a black man” series by Emmy award-winning videojournalist Ben De La Cruz. This series was also recently honored with the prestigious Peabody Award, a first for washingtonpost.com
• Critically-acclaimed series on Darfur refugees in Chad by Emmy Award-winning videojournalist Travis Fox
• “Justin’s Got Game” by Pierre Kattar, recently recognized with an awardfrom Pictures of the Year International.
• Ongoing coverage of the presidential campaign trail by John Poole, a White House News Photographers Association’s Editor of the Year.
“The washingtonpost.com’s multimedia team has worked hard to hone not only their technical skills, but also their storytelling skills,” said Kennedy, in the press release. “This team has invested in providing outstanding content and quality journalism, and in turn we’ve invested in the technology they need to keep growing without limitations.”
washingtonpost.com has been producing web video since 1998, and moved to high-definition cameras in 2006 in anticipation of the wide-spread adoption of HD technology.
washingtonpost.com is the award-winning news and information Web site of the Washington Post. One of four online properties published by Washingtonpost. Newsweek
Interactive, washingtonpost.com is the recipient of the first-ever Emmy for original video journalism online and has won numerous other awards, including an EPpy Award for Best Overall Newspaper-Affiliated Site, several Digital Edge Awards, a 2007 National Journalism Award for Web Reporting, National Press Photographers’ Association Best of Photojournalism Award, and three consecutive Edward R. Murrow Awards for Overall Excellence for Non-Broadcast Affiliated Website, among others. According to the 2007 Project for Excellence in Journalism, washingtonpost.com is a “High Achiever” as an online news site, earning strong marks in terms of branding, content customization, multimedia and user participation.
For more information via Apple’s iTunes, washingtonpost.com HD video podcasts.
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HD podcasts and AppleTV are, I think, the beginning of a cultural phenomenon… many interesting possibilities
Viral networking could accelerate this.. imagine being able to “rate” Apple TV content from your Apple TV box and set up “sets” of things you like.. like the way iTunes lets people pick clusters of songs.
YouTube has something like this, but horrible video quality.. this could be similar with better potential available video quality.
I’m so proud of my hometown newspaper – the Washington Post is already an excellent news source. They’ve been honing their documentary chops for a while now; I can’t wait to see it all in HD on my Apple TV!
The HD podcast that someone produces in their basement can now be side by side with Lost on on tv’s everywhere…..and actually look better.
Look for more print, dailys and weeklies, to go this route as subscription rates fall for the dead tree edition.
The coupe de gra will be when a medium learns how to take small town local news and add streaming video of local events for its subs to watch. Like a mergeing of newspaper/TV news.
Also, I like my Zinio Reader!
MW:remember
This is interesting.
I road the podcast wave for awhile, then I got bored with it.
HD Video Podcast, that might make me more likely to get an AppleTV if:
1. The quality is HD
2. The producers of the podcast are talented
3. The podcast are free (my favorite flavor)
“making it easier than ever to view extremely quality news content anywhere”
Extremely quality? Man, even journalists cannot speak English anymore.
Well, we all know if there’s a merging between TV and newspapers, which journalists will do the best job. The print photographers have so much better eyes for composition that with a little practice, they’ll make the TV jocks look like hacks in comparison. Technology may change the news business, but the bottom line is quality will win out.
Finally, I can distribute my HD podcasts of candid interviews with a naked Bea Arthur in the stunning detail they deserve. God bless the internet.
They’ve been distorting quite a few news items lately, to give cover for the administration. Last weekend one of their editors went on tv lambasting the other editors for hypocrisy, etc… Business as usual.
Uh…
Article says, “All washingtonpost.com videos are shot with high-definition cameras, and the series available on iTunes is coded to play in 720p.”
It looks like the clips are indeed shot at high def., but when I play the podcast back in QT, info for the movie indicates that it is h.264 640×480, FPS=29.97, Data Rate=1618Kb/sec. So I’m not really sure what, “…coded to play in 720p” means.
Anybody got any ideas? It looks to me like the down conversion leaves us with plan ‘ole NTSC broadcast quality video. What did I miss?
The iTunes lock in for Apple TV is gaining traction. Ballmer must be stocking up on ammunition — chairs.
Can you say..
S-L-O-W downloads…?
What about clogging valuable hard drive space?
Has anyone thought about the children?
I think you might be interested in this from intel http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20070410/tc_cmp/198900254
I would definitely like to see this in the iMac.
TMA
Naked Bea Arthur? I guess that would settle the argument once and for all…..?
MW:look
….on a lonely country road …in the early morning hours of april 10th I noticed a light in the sky. I pulled over to watch. I awoke to several strange beings watching back. They all had pale and skinny legs with black dress socks pulled up to their knees …it was hideous. They told me they weren’t ready for HD video ..they were still on dial-up. I asked them if they were using OSX. They said they had heard of it but were still sucking on Redmonds tit. I threw up a little in my mouth .. I looked down at their knee-socks …I asked if I was conscious. They said no, but you are telling lies. I told them it wasn’t a lie, it was a story ….that’s different. I can’t wait to pass this on to the Washington Post.
The iTunes page does not contain the HD content!
There is a separate feed for the HD Apple TV podcast:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/mmedia/hd_podcast.xml
Copy and paste into “Advanced – Subscribe to Podcast” dialogue box in iTunes.
First one downloading – 247MB so is probably 720p
AppleGuy,
It isn’t the journalists. It’s the small number of editors. One of the consequences of the computer revolution and especially desktop publishing is that everyone is trying to publish on the cheap. The way to to that is produce more with less, which means fewer eyes to proof read, copy edit, and edit stories before they are published.
It used to be that anything going for publication would pass at least three sets of eyes at least once, with the writer seeing the edited versions in between edits. Today, we’re lucky if an editor reads it at all, so we the customers end up being the proof readers and editors.
Washingtonpost.COM and get it!
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Peace.
“The way to to that is produce more with less, which means fewer eyes to proof read, copy edit, and edit stories before they are published.”
To To That!
MW: LARGE
The future is like now-now?!
And this is why Apple always succeeds . . . they provide a box with new possibilities, and let others think outside it. While critics are busy tut-tuting about quality of TV shows and movies and so on, others are already cranking up their video engines to start providing all sorts of unique and attractive video content OTHER THAN MOVIES AND TV SHOWS to be streamed over AppleTV. Apple creates keys to open the doors to exciting new alternatives . . . smart people then use these keys to create previously unthought-of results.
Whoahhh, anti-creative cretin,
Cut back on the acid, dude!
so simple for any kids.
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