Don’t Shoot!

By: Rich Kane

Newspaper photographers no longer need darkrooms. Print journalists have no use for typewriters.

Then there’s the two-year-old company Wochit, a cloud-based platform that neatly removes the video camera from the job of video making.

Even more intriguing, senior vice president Drew Berkowitz says his two-year-old company can help users create a video for any written story in just 10 minutes. And in this age of Web surfers who not only demand instant news gratification but who also have an unquenchable need for video content, Wochit seems to be perfectly positioned for success.

“We provide a platform with which people who have no production skills can make a compelling video,” said Berkowitz. “We’ve never gone out and said this replaces broadcast video, but this enhancement is tremendous for publications that are trying to get a news story out quickly. And the information interests of the public favor video instead of the written word.”

Wochit-crafted videos are mostly about a minute long, feeding a news consumer’s short-attention-span needs while making life easier for publishers and editors through speed and efficiency. And indeed, no video shooting or video editing experience is required. A video maker only has to go into the system, choose a story from the task manager (or write one from scratch), enter a URL or three, pick out stock photos, clips or graphics from partnered sources like Reuters, AP and Getty, throw in some narration (or send it out to one of Wochit’s professional voiceover talents), add salt, stir vigorously, bake at 350 degrees, and voila—hot, fresh-from-the-oven video content, ready for uploading to any website or social media outlet. And yes, Wochit videos are mobile-friendly.

More than 75 clients are using Wochit, said Berkowitz, and not just for editorial content. The New York Daily News brands it with native advertising projects like its “Your City: Then & Now” Web feature, which is sponsored by a health care company. Warner Music uses Wochit for a music news channel on its YouTube page.

“My idea is to go to Huggies and match them with celebrity baby news, or Kleenex for marriages,” said Berkowitz.

On the company’s own YouTube page and its news, entertainment, business and tech verticals, there are a staggering 66,000 videos that people have made using Wochit.

“Our editorial videos stem from journalism,” Berkowitz makes clear. “But there is still a need for great writing, because our videos are based on a story of some kind. For Wochit users, there’s very low risk because we cut so much time off of what had been a long process.”

For more information, go to wochit.com.