Two great responses to the question ‘How long should online video be?’ from the Newspaper Video list.

Davin McHenry from Bakersfield.com says:

The only limits we have here in Bakersfield are: If your video is over two minutes you have to have another editor watch the video and suggest possible cuts.

I think blanket limits are silly. There are video stories that can’t
be told in two minutes. We’ve had stuff that ran 6-7 minutes.

The trick is to allow freedom of length without people abusing it.
It’s very easy to fall in love with your own footage and let videos go on and on. You have to be self disciplined and, frankly, be brutal with your footage.

His first point is a great idea and his last point is one of the toughest lessons to learn in video (online or broadcast)

Another Bakersfield bod, Jennifer Baldwin, notes:

I actually made a two-parter because my video would have been 12 minutes if I hadn’t!

It’s worth remembering that we can break content in to blocks and show it on the same page. Look at Yolanda’s Crossing over at the Dallas News as an example