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Headquartered in NYC and with further offices in LA and London, Stringr is a comprehensive video marketplace that enables media organizations to source custom footage, both live and taped, edit and publish under very tight deadlines. The company leverage the only nationwide network of more than 100k highly responsive videographers who provide broadcast-quality video in every major US market as well as the UK.
WNIP caught up with Lindsay Stewart, CEO and Co-Founder of Stringr, to find out more…
Can you give us further background about your company?
Brian McNeill, our Chief Operating Officer and I founded Stringr in 2014 while attending Wharton, University of Pennsylvania. As a former producer, I know the challenges first hand that publishers and broadcasters face when it comes to telling stories and the importance of having engaging video content to further the narratives for journalists.
Can you expand on the business problem your company is addressing?
The publishing and news industries have changed so much, even beyond just the 24/7 news cycle. The bottom line is that not only do you have to be the first with a story and the associated video, but you also need to be accurate.
As publishers and news organizations have been forced to consolidate their staff, Stringr was created to help publishers cover anything, anywhere. It doesn’t matter if you’re a local publisher that’s looking for video content of something happening in another part of the country or a global news organization that needs to be able to provide breaking news, publishers of all sizes need to be able to provide the content that’s important to their viewers.
What is your core product addressing this problem?
Publishers are able to put out a request through the Stringr app, and networks can select footage that best fits their needs. The wide array of videos submitted from both amateur and professional videographers ensures that content users have options that fit within their budgets.
We’ve also expanded our offerings to include live streaming, where publishers can request live video and then publish directly across platforms. In addition to our custom video offering, we also have a content library of over 300,000 pieces of digital content. The video below gives a good insight into how our solution works:
Can you give some examples of publishers successfully using your solution?
Flood Communications’ News Channel Nebraska, a news network collective of 15 local news stations, wanted to find a scalable way to source B-roll footage for real-time stories happening in other parts of the state. In breaking news situations, it can be more than a 40-minute drive from the network’s physical station and it was not financially feasible for the station to send an entire crew to the scene.
The state of Nebraska is roughly 430 miles wide and it takes about seven and a half hours to drive east to west. By leveraging Stringr, News Channel Nebraska is able to source video and has become the only state to reach smaller communities within itself, covering midterm elections, important weather updates and more.
Pricing?
Stringr is a credit-based marketplace where our customers buy credits and then use them to buy video (archival, custom, live) or access our production services.
What are other people doing in the space and why?
While we don’t have very many straight-play competitors in terms of speed and technology, there are other ways to access third-party video, many of which are Stringr partners, including Getty, Shutterstock, Storyful, and Jukin. There are also many talented videographers and production houses that enable the sourcing of custom video—Stringr loves collaborating with them too, when possible.
How do you view the future?
While we’ve already grown from a network of 5,000 videographers to over 100,000, I think there is a great deal of opportunity for us in the growing media marketplace. Video is a very important component of the content economy because of its ability to engage and captivate audiences. Because of Stringr’s robust network of videographers, we have a great deal of content from different events on a global scale. As we continue to expand, we continue to work with clients beyond news, broadcast, and publishing. Stringr now works with brands, agencies, and corporations.
For publishing, I think we’ll continue to see publishers be more strategic with their approach to producing content and monetization, specifically as it comes to video.
Thank you.
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
