Yahoo! Japan: Speed is key to succeed in social video | Reuters News Agency

Yahoo! Japan: Speed is key to succeed in social video

How does Yahoo! Japan quickly get videos from around the world and distribute them on social media?

Feb 21, 2018

Pandas are popular around the world, but in Japan they can cause media feeding frenzies. Xiang Xiang is the first panda cub to go on show at Japan’s oldest zoo in nearly 30 years. The cub has been such a sensation that Tokyo’s Ueno Zoological Gardens has had to choose visitors by lottery.

Last December, when Xiang Xiang underwent a dental exam at three months old, Yahoo! Japan faced a challenge: getting video of the cub to its audience as soon as possible. Like many large newsrooms, Yahoo! News were still dealing with cumbersome licensing agreements that slowed down their editorial process.

So they tried Reuters Connect and quickly had a video of Xiang Xiang on Yahoo! News’ Facebook page. On Facebook, the footage received over 3,000 likes and hundreds of shares.

“This panda cub was very popular among Japanese audiences and we could easily get footage through Reuters Connect,” says Fumitaka Tanaka, an editor in Yahoo’s News and Sport Division.

Founded in 1996, Yahoo! Japan is a diversified digital content company run by some 6,000 staff. But in the digital age, when everyone with a smartphone is now a potential publisher and broadcaster, newsrooms face the seemingly impossible task of staying on top of the torrent of news generated around the world.

This panda cub was very popular among Japanese audiences and we could easily get footage through Reuters Connect”

— Fumitaka Tanaka, editor, Yahoo!Jp News and Sport Division.

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Speed matters

In 2017, Reuters launched Reuters Connect, a web-based platform that features all their multimedia content. Users can access real-time breaking news articles from 200 Reuters bureaus around the world, with feeds covering business to sports to politics and entertainment, as well as photos, live and recorded videos, and infographics.

The service is helping Yahoo! News cover not only its own home turf of Japan but overseas news as well. Reuters Connect is made for speed. It allows Yahoo! News editorial staff to download footage into Adobe Premiere, make any necessary edits, and then post them to the Yahoo feeds.

Tanaka points to the example of Hurricane Irma, which hit the southern U.S. in September, causing dozens of fatalities and over $50 billion in damages.

Flexibility

Reuters Connect is aimed at accelerating the content-creation process, offering a breadth of content as well as flexibility. The platform allocates 100 Reuters Points per month and leftover points can be used for up to three months. Prior to using Reuters Connect, Yahoo! News was relying on individual feed contracts with various media outlets.

“Previously we had to have contracts with every provider but now we can download and use content from providers we don’t have contractual relationships with. From a business point of view, that’s the No. 1 merit of this service,” says Yumika Matsuda, an official with Yahoo! News.

For more information about Reuters Connect, visit Reuters Connect

This article was originally published on The Splice Newsroom.