I’ve been enjoying WCCO reporter Jason DeRusha’s innovative “desk news” each weekday at 4 p.m.
Viewers can watch a live stream of Jason’s desk on-demand during the day, but at 4 p.m. he specifically tunes into the live chat, talks about the changes being made to his Good Question for the evening, and tries to speak nonstop whilst reading the live chat and doing his best to make us feel like he’s listening.
It’s truly a fun and insightful strategy, and compared to what other mainstream media outlets are doing, bleeding edge.
Yesterday more than 50 of us tuned into see him receive the CityPages “Best Online Personality” Award live….
Today more than 20 of us were helping Jason with some last minute changes to his script (including AP Style help from Brianna on usage of lying vs. laying) when conversation shifted to sponsoring the channel, and I mentioned the Jason Cam was sponsored by “Lip Plumpers.”
Jason mentioned he was reserving the banner space for his big fans at MinnPost, but he would host sponsored chats for $5. Here’s what that would look like.
Knowing all mainstream media outlets are struggling with monetization atop the challenge of maintaining relevance in a free, whimsical and immediate news culture, this is pretty damn good deal, if you ask me.
Sustainable? No. Was he serious? Not really. In fact, I got 20 less unique visitors today than I did Monday and four less than yesterday. But if an innovative company wants to intimately reach a core group of highly engaged online stakeholders, this is one venue worth exploring. I’m sure Jason and WCCO are open to creative ideas.
Watch Jason’s live streaming news desk Web camera and participate in the chat room here.
Disclaimer: WCCO is an advertiser on Perfect Porridge. That’s not incestuous, right?
