The New York Times is expanding its online video offerings by creating
syndication deals with independent content producers. Last month, it
brought the Bloggingheads to the paper’s
op-ed page.
In the latest development, it has an agreement with Purple States
TV for a series of about a dozen segments on the presidential primaries
leading up to Super Tuesday on February 5.
The segments will appear
on the op-ed pages beginning on December 19, a spokesperson for The New York Times told Beet.TV
Purple States TV is the brainchild
of Cynthia Farrar, a
faculty member at
Director of Urban Academic Initiatives. She has a background in
television, having consulted to MacNeill Lehrer Productions. She is on
leave from Yale and is serving as CEO of the upstart content company.
The privately-funded business headquartered in New Haven, with editing facilities in Manhattan,
has selected five non-journalist "citizens" to interview candidates
in the key primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and
Carolina.
They are from various political persuasions: a Republican, Democrat,
libertarian and independent. They travel together with a two-camera crew.
A total of 14 in the entourage for this new kind of "reality TV."
In addition to the deal with The Times, Purple videos will air in Iowa on WHO-TV, in South Carolina on WIS TV and on KNBC TV in LA
Purple States has been pretty much under the radar, but a number of the videos
can be seen on Blip.TV I’ve
posted an interview with Mike Huckabee above.
— Andy Plesser
