A statewide media nonprofit, Oklahoma Watch produces investigative journalism, especially on how policies affect the vulnerable. It holds public forums and fosters debate through social media, multimedia and public appearances.
“A Few Minutes With…” is a video project planned over the next year, producing at least 25 videotaped interviews with key figures, newsmakers or representatives of critical problems in Oklahoma. The focus will be on a personal story related to an important issue. Stories will be repurposed as one-graph minis on Instagram, and videos will be made available to the state’s news media.
Oklahoma Watch will sell sponsorship packages for the series. Text intros will also link to new or previous Oklahoma Watch stories and data visualizations. Oklahoma Watch expects to break even on the first year of this project and generate $20,000 in revenues in year two and beyond.
This is a smart and clever sponsorship approach, the judges believe. Like many investigative news organizations, Oklahoma Watch finds sponsorships can be hard to develop around challenging or controversial topics. It also wants to begin building audiences around video. This project, if successful, could demonstrate ways an investigative news source can use video to generate higher revenue and produce content that is both relevant and sponsor-friendly without compromising its investigative focus.