Roanoke’s Seth Gitner is surveying the members of the Newspaper Video Yahoo Group about their newspapers’ use of video and training. The good news is that a lot of them are diving enthusiastically into video. The bad news, in my opinion, is that in some cases, it’s not coming out of the photo departments.

I’m puzzled by this. The visuals people at papers should be leading the charge into video. They are the visual experts in the organizations. The leap from still images to video is far shorter for them than for a reporter or someone else. They have the smarts and the political capital in newsrooms to make video a priority.

Instead, though, we are getting some responses such as this:

Is your newspaper cross training its still photogs to do video?

Not really. There’s been talk of it but the photocracy* isn’t really interested. … They aren’t even interested in helping out with Soundslides (all that production is done by web staffers, except for a few rare cases where a photographer stood over someone’s shoulder)!”

The Oregonian is not cross-training its photographers. And at the Bakersfield Californian, long considered in the digital media vanguard, just “(t)hree of our six photographers have each made one video,” reports multimedia editor Jennifer Baldwin. There, she says. “photographers have not been interested in doing video.” (Although that may be changing.)

Bakersfield is especially interesting because the site is swimming in video. The paper produces two to three video pieces a day. But it’s coming from reporters, not photographers.

On the one hand, it’s fantastic that the Californian has taught so many reporters to see the value of video, and that they are willing to learn and use new skills. For run-of-the-mill daily news video, it seems to be working great. But without the participation of the photo staff, you’re likely missing out on some really exceptional video storytelling possibilities. Many of the photographers at the Californian were there during my internship 20(!) years ago, and they are a talented bunch. It’s a crime — and a waste of resources — that they aren’t applying their talents to this richer, more engaging visual medium. And it’s a shame that they aren’t a resource for the other staffers who could use help with composition, framing, lighting and other shooting techniques.

We’re fortunate at the Mercury News in that our photo staff has embraced video and is using it to do interesting things such as this and this and compelling storytelling such as this. They, and other newspaper staffs, see the way forward. It’s high time for all newspaper photo staffs to see the light.