george osborne’s budget led to trial vblog by Raw Cut TV and MSN

Rupert Murdoch’s decision to introduce a pay wall on July 2 could have completely intended consequences. I have just written an article to come out shortly for the NUJ magazine The Journalist which explores this.

However the election and the emergency budget provided a opportunity for an experiment between MSN and Raw Cut TV to see if there was a market for both written blogs and video blogs. You can see the two written blogs on my main page and in the archives.

The video blogs http://video.uk.msn.com/watch/video/possible-vat-increase-david-hencke-s-budget-bites/2tfwfoy8 (is one example and the rest are also on the site) marked an interesting partnership between a TV company, political journalist and a major internet provider. Excuse my arm in a sling as I am still recovering from my shoulder operation.

MSN like AOL used to provide all its own news but now mainly repeats other outlets. The aim was to provide a simple, visual budget bites , aimed not at the wealthy people who read the business sections but among ordinary wage slaves who don’t have oodles of spare cash.

MSN and Raw Cut are currently thinking about taking this forward – one small step for on line journalism rather churnalism.