So what exactly is ‘CNN Digital Video’?
Jackson Loo: This question is tricky because pretty much all video is “digital” these days, right? Almost anything can be streamed over the internet onto your TV or mobile device. Some of our digital video will end up on TV. And viewers who come to our digital platforms will see a lot of video that appeared on TV first.
For our production teams, digital video refers to stories that we’re making specifically for CNN’s online digital platforms, as opposed to something that’s meant to go on TV first. So that includes video for our website, mobile website or the CNN mobile app, but it also could include video for a social media platform like YouTube, Instagram or TikTok.
There’s an extremely wide range of video we produce. In addition to covering the news of the day, we produce explainers, features, interviews, profiles, digital shows and interactives.
Karol Brinkley: I’m on the Digital Video Programming team, which has two primary functions: we watch the CNN TV feed all day long and identify and publish online the most compelling moments for digital audiences. We’re also the people who take all video content — whether from TV or created specifically for digital — and showcase it across different CNN platforms. Think of the CNN platforms as a giant puzzle. We are the people who place the video pieces of the puzzle and turn it into what you see when you come to any CNN site or account.
How much of the video that we see on CNN.com is from TV?
Brinkley: It depends! CNN has incredible access to telling stories around the globe. Sometimes when a story is breaking or evolving, you’ll initially see a lot of TV content since that’s the quickest way to get the video to the audience. On any regular day you’ll see a good mix of both content from our incredible TV reporters as well as videos from our super talented digital video team who really think about the best way to tell video stories specifically for digital audiences.
Talk about the process of creating video content for an online audience. How is it different than TV?
Loo: From a production standpoint, our digital teams are often leaner than traditional TV production teams. In a TV crew, you might have a producer, a photojournalist (we call them PJs) and a correspondent. A separate editor might cut the story later. But many of our digital video producers are capable of producing, shooting and editing. So that gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of how we produce certain stories.