Extensive election article

The Miami Herald recently sent Beth Reinhard to cover the election battleground along I-4 for several days. The substantial article, which is part investigative and part human interest, is presented online alongside a photo gallery and a short video.

Let's start with the positive, the video. It does a good job of showing all the small communities mentioned, with Google Maps transitions into each segment. Seeing and hearing the people shows their emotion and passion about the subject better than words can portray.

That being said, however, the video is extensive enough that it almost renders the print article useless. It presents a few additional points of view and shows what people are feeling better than the article can, though it does a decent job. If the video had a few of the facts the article contains, you wouldn't even have to bother reading the article.

That's the interesting balance that exists when newspapers provide video content: yes, an article is still necessary for the physical newspaper, but if the video contains everything the story needs and does a better job portraying the emotion involved, why wouldn't you devote all your resources to the more powerful storytelling means?

Unfortunately for the time being, that's not possible since you still have to put out a paper copy and videos and paper don't get along (yet).

But maybe instead of linking to the story online, the Herald could link to the video for their e-newsletter subscribers or something like that? Maybe that way they could emphasize the power of the video without diminishing the necessity of the print article.

Oh, and as an afterthought (which is what it happens to be), the photo "gallery" containing two images isn't really necessary. In my opinion, if you have two photos you might as well space them out throughout the story instead of having a slideshow at the top of the page. That might break up the lengthy text anyway.