Local news outlets are finding new life online. Your video campaign can find new life with local news outlets. Here's how.

Attention on content
According to the Online Publishers Association, 47 percent of our time online is now spent embracing content. Back in 2003, content ingestion represented only 33 percent of time spent online and was overshadowed by email and instant message communication.

This significant increase in reading, watching, blogging, vlogging and poking one another online signals that the internet is now a true means of content distribution for the masses of niche, engrossed audiences.

This prolific rise in content exposure time comes on the heels of more "demise" talk, however. For those keeping tabs, bloggers and journalists alike have posited 2007 to be the year of the demise of the 30-second spot, the demise of the movie industry, and now, according to the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University, the demise of local news outlets.

Given the OPA study about where users are putting their attention online, though, and research by the NAA that online newspaper visitation is up 7.7 percent over last year, it would seem the Harvard study's conclusions are exaggerated at best.

The more things change…
The explosive growth of online content has fragmented the internet ecosystem into untold thousands of niches. This has brought people together in new ways as part of communities based on shared values and interests. Of these communities, an interest in local affairs has always been, and continues to be, one the largest driving forces in banding people together.

According to eMarketer, American newspaper sites with video content have increased from 67 percent last year to 92 percent this year. With so many news outlets stockpiling video content and adding community building tools into their sites as well, local websites present fantastic opportunities for advertisers to make a local impact, nationally.

The Harvard Study concludes that local newspapers, and perhaps all local news outlets, don't stand a chance at branding themselves against the big name news outlets, and that this fact will lead to their demise. While it's true that the big national sites have greater awareness numbers, users are still very cognizant that these organizations don't have the same presence in, dedication to, or credibility with, local affairs as the smaller regional news outlets do.

To steal a line from Will Ferrell's Ron Burgundy, beloved local anchormen (and women), in their respective markets, are "kind of a big deal." And their brand carries over online.

All it takes is one pause for provincial alarm and the relevance of the smaller sites is immediately realized.

For anyone working around 41st and Lexington on July 19th, the importance of the local media, even in Manhattan, became obvious when hundreds of people ran screaming through the streets while cabs drove frantically in reverse to escape what turned out to be a burst steam pipe.

My first instinct was to run and sell all my stocks…but instead…I logged onto CNN.com, then FoxNews.com, then NYTimes.com, and finally to Google News to find out what was going on. No luck with any of these. The first site to present the story, and include video from the scene, was New York's ABC Channel 7, wabc.com.

Local news outlets, be they newspapers, radio stations or news stations, all hold important places in the lives of the communities they serve and are all ripe for powerful video advertising opportunities.

So, why target locally with video?
First, a quick recap as to why local news outlets present great opportunity:

Bar none, local news outlets are the trusted authorities in their communities. These smaller sites are the long tail of credible news information and they inherently understand their respective audience's needs. Local news outlets speak to the keen, unique interests of the users they serve, and thereby combine trustworthiness with relevance to become authorities on a myriad of regional topics.

Additionally, when local online news outlets share content (news stations syndicating video to newspapers, newspapers syndicating stories to radio sites, etc.) the glut of content allows for peaked interest from site visitors. Savvy local publishers are already converting this interest into social networking sub-sites.

But why video on these sites?

Extreme relevance in their users lives and up-to-the-minute coverage make local sites very sticky. Users frequent these sites often, and since video ads cut through the clutter, they make it possible to successfully push multiple messages to users. This means getting the branding message to the audience without creative burnout over shorter periods of time.

What's more, while users seeking out specific national news stories may go to the larger publishers, the aggregation of local and national stories on local news outlets make these sites a-one-stop-shop for the casual content watcher/reader.

According to eMarketing, "Internet video watchers tend to be active buyers who act on advertising and content they experience online. Streamers and downloaders (...) are likelier than other internet users to buy products that were advertised on the content they watched on the web."

Much of this content -- be it neighborhood news, local entertainment, or the opinions of local thought leaders on finance, regional politics and national goings-on -- is now in video form. This means users have more ways of taking in content and advertisers have more ways of reaching users with powerful video products.

Finally, when advertisers successfully attention-target content on these sites and place their ads where they know their audience spends the most time, the increased exposure can pay dividends in raising awareness, perceived relevance and brand lift.

Conclusion
The voracious consumption of video these days is a sign that the people are getting what they want. The content they're finding is relevant and engaging to them, and local news outlets, which are all seemingly in a video content land grab type frenzy to enhance their site-experiences, represent some of the most relevant portals into the audience Americana.

While it's true that the big name brand sites have a leg up in national appeal, and a head start with video ad opportunities, advertisers who take advantage of the emerging interest in video on the local sites will be privy to lengthier exposure time and higher perceived relevance. This audience exposure, when maximized and coupled with powerful video creative, can produce profound benefits for the marketer and the brand.

Bradley Werner is the director of marketing for The Fifth Network. Read full bio.