New York Times to Publish First User-Generated Videos with "How We Met" Wedding Announcements

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The New York Times, which has been producing original videos for the past three years, has taken the bold step of inviting its readers to submit videos for publication on the paper's site.   This will mark the first time The Times has published user-generated video.

The first videos will be of engaged couples in a series titled "How We Met."  Beginning this week, the couples will be offered the opportunity to upload a three minute video using a simple tool on the Weddings and Celebrations page. 

They will be asked to submit the video clip along with their wedding announcement and photo. Here are the guidelines.

Not all the wedding announcements submitted to The Times are used.  The Times will only post videos of announcements which are accepted for print publication.

For about a year, The Times has been publishing video segments of engaged couples in series called Vows.  The clips, there are 48 of them,  appear on on the Sunday Styles section. These are produced by The Times in-house production team.  (We enjoyed seeing a clip of a friend, Bobbi Rebell, a television news reporter with Reuters here in Manhattan -- belated congrats Bobbi and Neil!).

This morning, I interviewed Nicholas Ascheim, Director of Entertainment, Video & Audio Products at The New York Times.  Nick sees this wedding program as an important first step for the paper in embracing user generated content -- which could expand to different sections and beats.

-- Andy Plesser

The New York Times, Nicholas Ascheim, user-generated video