Guide
Vertical video for newsrooms: the reporter on camera, posted fast
Updated
Vertical news video works best when the reporter who covered the story talks to camera and posts while the story is still moving. This guide covers length, polish, sources and which stories to keep in text.
In short
- Newsrooms get the most from vertical video when the reporter who covered the story talks to camera, recorded in one go.
- A news update should run 20 to 45 seconds, and an explainer up to about 90 seconds.
- Speed matters more than polish, so post while the story is still moving, not a day later.
- Viewers trust a video more when the reporter says what is confirmed, how they know it and what is still unknown.
- Some stories belong in text, such as document stories, data with several numbers, uncleared legal stories and frightened sources.
- Update, explainer and correction
- 3 types
- What 30 seconds of talking to camera holds
- ~75 words
- The longest explainer this guide suggests
- 90 sec
Which vertical videos should a newsroom make?
Three kinds cover almost every day. Each one is a reporter talking to a phone, recorded in one go.
- Thirty seconds of talking holds about 75 words.
- The reporter should know the words well enough to say them without reading. Reading from a script shows in the eyes.
- Anything much longer than 90 seconds is a produced TV piece, not a vertical video.
Three kinds of vertical news video
| Type | Length | What the reporter says |
|---|---|---|
| Update | 20 to 45 seconds | What happened, and what is confirmed so far |
| Explainer | Up to about 90 seconds | What the story means and why it matters |
| Correction | Its own short post | What was wrong, the right figure and where it came from |
Type: Update
- Length
- 20 to 45 seconds
- What the reporter says
- What happened, and what is confirmed so far
Type: Explainer
- Length
- Up to about 90 seconds
- What the reporter says
- What the story means and why it matters
Type: Correction
- Length
- Its own short post
- What the reporter says
- What was wrong, the right figure and where it came from
Who should be on camera: the reporter or the anchor?
The reporter who worked the story. They should be in frame from the first second, saying what happened.
- On a phone, videos that open on a person tend to hold viewers better than videos that open on drone footage.
- Add footage behind the sentences that need it, not before the reporter speaks.
- TV often opens with pictures. On a phone, people scroll away before the reporter appears.
- The reporter can answer follow-up questions in the comments an hour later, which an anchor usually cannot.
- Readers tend to trust particular journalists, and video puts those people in the feed.
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
How polished should vertical news video be?
Not very. Your video competes with a screenshot of someone else's headline, not with your evening bulletin.
- A good vertical news video is clearly reported and posted while the story is still moving.
- Colour grading and lighting matter far less than who is on camera.
- Decide the length before you record, then record it in one go.
- If the first try is not right, record one more and post it. Every extra try costs time on a moving story.
How to show your sources in a news video
Most other videos about the same story show no sources. Showing yours is something they cannot copy.
- Post corrections on camera, from the same reporter, as their own post.
- A correction posted only as a text card or a quiet caption edit looks like damage control.
- An on-camera correction takes about a minute of the reporter's time.
- When your sources are in the video, people argue about the story, not about whether you made it up.
Three sentences that build trust
Many desks drop the third sentence to save time. Keep it, because it shows you are careful.
What we know
The confirmed facts, said plainly
How we know it
Name the document or where the figure came from
What we do not know yet
Keep the unconfirmed apart from the confirmed
Which stories should not be vertical videos?
Plenty of good journalism does not fit a phone screen. Check each story before anyone picks up a camera.
- Document stories stay in text, because a phone shows only about six readable words at a glance.
- Data stories with more than one number work better as a chart post.
- Legal stories that are not yet cleared stay in text, because spoken caveats are less precise and spread before you can fix them.
- If the footage tells the story, post the footage with captions and leave the reporter out.
- Keep frightened sources off camera. Vertical video is for staff and for people who chose to be public.
Text story or vertical video?
Check the story against this before anyone picks up a camera.
The evidence
- Keep it as a text story
- A document people need to reread
- Make it a vertical video
- A figure a reporter can say once
The pictures
- Keep it as a text story
- The footage is the story
- Make it a vertical video
- The footage supports what the reporter says
The caveats
- Keep it as a text story
- Three or more, all essential
- Make it a vertical video
- One, said plainly
Can a reporter say it without notes?
- Keep it as a text story
- No, it needs footnotes
- Make it a vertical video
- Yes
| Keep it as a text story | Make it a vertical video | |
|---|---|---|
| The evidence | A document people need to reread | A figure a reporter can say once |
| The pictures | The footage is the story | The footage supports what the reporter says |
| The caveats | Three or more, all essential | One, said plainly |
| Can a reporter say it without notes? | No, it needs footnotes | Yes |
Where Cutroom fits
Editing each video by hand takes a careful editor about 40 minutes, which is what stops most daily plans. Cutroom does that edit in about a minute.
- You upload one video of the reporter talking, up to 3 minutes long.
- You get a finished 9:16 MP4 with captions in one of 40 caption styles, a hook at the start and footage on the words that need it.
- A producer checks it by reading the transcript, and fixes a misheard name there.
- Cutroom cannot clip a two-hour broadcast. It only exports vertical MP4 files, with no separate subtitle files.
- Each video costs 100 credits to edit plus 20 per minute to export, so about 110 credits for 30 seconds and 120 for a minute. Lite is $19.99 a month for 1,250 credits, about 11 videos of 30 seconds, with no Cutroom mark.
Three ways to edit a vertical news video
| Option | Time or cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Edit by hand | About 40 minutes a video: captions, vertical framing, name checks, export | A desk with a spare editor |
| Post the video as recorded | Free, with the caption tools in the posting apps | Two posts a week |
| Cutroom | About a minute a video, about 110 credits for 30 seconds | One post a day or more |
Option: Edit by hand
- Time or cost
- About 40 minutes a video: captions, vertical framing, name checks, export
- Best for
- A desk with a spare editor
Option: Post the video as recorded
- Time or cost
- Free, with the caption tools in the posting apps
- Best for
- Two posts a week
Option: Cutroom
- Time or cost
- About a minute a video, about 110 credits for 30 seconds
- Best for
- One post a day or more
Questions people ask
- How long should a vertical news video be?
- 20 to 45 seconds for an update, and up to about 90 seconds for an explainer. The real limit is whether the reporter can say it all without notes. A script taped to the wall shows in the eyes.
- Should the reporter or the anchor present vertical stories?
- The reporter who did the reporting, almost always. They can answer follow-up questions in the comments and know which caveat matters. Anchors are excellent at reading copy, which is the skill this format needs least.
- Do we need a studio for vertical news video?
- No. A window, a quiet room, a phone at eye height and a clip-on microphone are enough. Spend money on audio, because viewers forgive a plain background but leave within seconds when the sound is bad.
- How should a newsroom handle corrections in vertical video?
- On camera, from the same reporter, as its own post. Say what was wrong, the right figure and where it came from. A quietly edited caption is the version that gets screenshotted. A visible correction tells viewers the rest was checked.
- How often should a vertical news desk post?
- As often as your busiest week still allows, and then keep to it. Three a week for twelve months builds a habit in an audience. Ten a day for two weeks mostly wears out the desk.
- Can Cutroom clip our live broadcasts?
- No. Cutroom takes one video someone recorded on purpose, up to 3 minutes long, and returns a finished vertical video. It does not search a two-hour broadcast for moments.
Put the reporter on camera in the first second, post while the story is live, and show your sources. Your first video is free.