You may have noticed that we have had more and more videos on our website. Our parent company, Journal Register Company, has given us new devices called Flip Cameras to help bring our community to life. These cameras are small enough to be put in your purse or pocket and pulled out whenever needed. The idea is to get quick video that doesn't take a lot of time to take or a lot of time to edit. The quality may not be perfect but that's not the point. Getting a different look at a story through video can be very informative to the public. Seeing body language, facial expression and tone of voice tells part of the story that the print version can't. Plus, it's pretty cool to see yourself in the paper and even more cool to see yourself on video that you can show your friends and family.

My thanks and gratitude go out to our photographer, John Haeger, who has embraced this concept and has done a great job not only in getting these videos, but setting an example for us all to follow. Each of our reporters have a video camera and John has graciously helped them with questions, editing, guidance and leadership.

Like with any new idea, time is the biggest hurdle. Our staff already has plenty of things to do and this just adds to their plate. I think in time, though, that it gets easier and easier to do because of familiarity. You get to know what needs video, what looks good on video, and how to edit film easier. Hopefully this will be the case. Only time will tell.