(iverson's) currentbuzz: Mark Scheffler talks to currentbuzz about businesspov.com video

The title of the video, "What Does it Mean to be a DIY Entrepreneur?" got me to click the link in the email. Seeing one of the Liss sisters in the video got me to rewind and pay attention to the story.

Lauren Liss, the one not interviewed in the businesspov.com story taught me some useful programming in Flash and I remember her talking about doing sites for her business. And at that moment, it struck me that businesspov.com is on to something. Local business stories in short videos produced by journalists as news.

Businesspov.com is a video-only business news site that has been producing local and "hyperlocal" Chicago business news stories since September, 2007.

In many mainstream media outlets business news stories are formulaic. They are told from the pov the CEO, the business person of a certain age, the boss.

Businesspov.com is presenting stories about business from different points of view. That was why the DIY story initially caught my eye. It presented a look at a group of youngish DIYers in their own words without being condescending about entrepreneurs who have turned their backs on established corporate practices.

Executive producer Mark Scheffler told me that the site currently has a team of 5 producers. He will go out sometimes and do an interview with a producer, but businesspov.com works from a model of the solo journalist. You go out, shoot your own video, do your own interviews, edit your work and upload it.

It was refreshing to talk to someone in journalism who thought this was the way reporters ought to work, rather than labeling this "backpack" journalism and acting like it was the story itself.

Asked if he knew of any other similar sites where the concept of the business story is being recast for audiences beyond the traditional CEO or long-time corporate boardroomer crowd, Mark said there were none in Chicago and that they hadn't found any others on the Web. This video-based approach appealed to me because it put the business facts and figures into a context I could understand by "being there" without needing to get an MBA.

How are they going to make money? Their revenue model is moving toward one based on ad-revenue and syndication. I didn't get a chance to pry into how much they are making or not making, nor ask how long they can run before they have to make a profit, but as Mark pointed out to me, "It is a space that not many people are working in," but one where there ought to be an interest.

As I think about it, this is just the kind of space that news-types ought to be carving out locally in many places. Imagine some "large, midwestern newspaper" to use the NYTimes phrase, putting together a feed of local business video from every commerce center in Illinois. Seems like there would be audience for that kind of news.

Source: businesspov.com