Video News Stories Launch on Salem-News.com

Salem media group takes a huge step forward with video news stories. New service adds to the options for visitors, making Salem-News.com a full multi-media news service.

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(Salem) - New technology has allowed Salem-News.com to reach full multi-media capacity with the initial launch of video news Friday evening. Tim King`s story on the return of the 1042nd Medical Company from Afghanistan focuses on one Oregon Guard Captain who formerly served as a helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps.

`We are so proud to have finally tackled this," King said. ` As former television news people, the Web has allowed us to bring published stories from the Mid-Willamette Valley to visitors for almost two years. Now we can deliver news the way we all initially learned, through the use of motion picture and sound, without the faceless corporate influence of a Portland TV station shadowing every step we take."

King says Web video streaming is becoming more popular by the day. `But the world isn`t exactly overflowing with television journalists looking for a new place to run their stories. It just so happened that there were a few of us in Salem who were able to band together. It has really worked out well, and we`re heading for our two-year anniversary."

Sadly, significant recent station layoffs at KOIN TV did usher more than a few experienced television news people into the unemployed ranks earlier this year. Like newspaper, television as we know it is also a waning industry. Internet versatility, rapidly on the move, has brought stable video, unlimited content, and now local news to users.

The difference is that Salem-News.com is not a spin-off from a nationally owned media group. King says large media organizations in Oregon tend to have a very limited number of people assigned to their Web staffs, `It gives us a real advantage. Now that we have video on the site, we plan to give valley residents news and information in multiple formats that meet every need with a goal of improving life here."

`We don`t have rules, we make rules." King says the highway his group has blazed in establishing a successful Internet news service for Salem is largely uncharted territory. `The FCC certainly has a hand in it, but they don`t regulate what we do." King says that is why it is especially important to have a well thought out and responsible framework to work within.

`By keeping the site fair and balanced in a true rather than commercial sense, and avoiding offensive content, we keep the path ahead clear. We know the rules TV, newspaper and radio have to live by and often agree that they make sense. So we follow the guidelines that we think people more or less expect as members of the general public, which include families with young children."

Salem-News.com launched its new site just eight days ago. The site`s redesign was the product of Matt Lintz of Salem, who works for the surveillance group SSI. Matt is also the creator of the national search engine clicksus.com. Salem-News.com Systems Analyst David Duncan worked closely with Lintz and Bonnie King, Salem-News.com`s General Manager in the overall design, while Tim King and News Director Kevin Hays shared their thoughts on actual news layout and delivery ideas.

The Internet has already shown the world that a new vehicle exists for the delivery of news. Salem, so starved for good television coverage, now will finally have its day. Salem no longer has to look for that elusive minute or two of Salem news on Portland TV stations if they want to know the latest, they can find it right here.