NewscastingNeed B-Roll?

General Motors just issued its quarterly report, and the news director at your station tells you to include some footage of one of its factories. You don't have time to wait for your contact at the stock house to mail you a tape, and satellite just isn't in the budget. Enter The NewsMarket (www.thenewsmarket.com), a website that provides journalists access to MPEG-2 video clips of stock footage and B-roll from such companies and organizations as General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, Intel, Sony, and the American Lung Association (it also has government clients).

"Our main competitor is the old way," said Shoba Purushothaman, co-founder, president, and chief executive officer of the NewsMarket, regarding her company's service. "The analog [tape] way of distribution and satellite distribution." Indeed, the NewsMarket online service is quite high tech: the company aggregates and digitizes the video content put out by its corporate and government clients onto one website. Qualified journalists who register with the service gain free access to the online archives, which are ready for air. The service seems to be catching on like wildfire with journalists, especially within the last year. "This time last year, less than 5% of the deliveries were digital and now it ranges between 40 and 50%," said Purushothaman. "I think more and more stations are moving toward the concept of digital."