When did the WashingtonPost. com get into the video news business?

W: When and why did the WashingtonPost.com get into the video news business?
M: Given the strength of the Post newspaper’s photo department, it made sense to me to develop our video/audio gathering and display capabilities as an adjunct when I arrived at the site in 1998. I thought it made sense to create a visual team that had the ability to work from a documentary photography/photojournalism ethos and to develop the capability to produce subject-driven narrative story-telling.
W: Who do you view as your competition in the market?
M: I would say that all forms of media are competition for us and that there is no one "main competitor". Our competition is ultimately for the time and attention of audience we can reach through the Internet.
W: Overall, how have your people been received by the local TV news operations in Washington?
M: I think it varies. Some of our colleagues commend our approach as enabling a type of storytelling that is powerful and direct and meaningful for the audience. Others decry aspects of our visual and editing technique and feel that the lack of conventional reporting voices and our editing processes don’t make our work "broadcast news" as they would define it.
W: Finally, a lot of people in the local TV business are scared of losing their jobs as broadcast companies continue to struggle in today’s competitive environment. What advice would you have for them?
M: I think one has to assume that smart people will make individual choices to expand personal repertoires as a response to this climate of change, just as many may simply abandon the profession because the magnitude/pace of change is too demanding and the bumpiness of the economic turbulence is too unsettling. I would encourage people to continue to be curious, learn new tricks, and recognize that any successful mutation (using biology as a metaphor) has always been as a result of a combination of exploitation and exploration.