Video site expands freelance team for new football coverage

Video communications firm Winkball is expanding its team of freelance video reporters with plans to add up to 80 new recruits to cover the UK's Premier League football season.

The "street-level" video project, which hired more than 50 reporters to cover last year's party political conferences, is looking for 10-20 reporters in Newcastle, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.

Reporters will be paid £14 per hour, plus expenses for those working in London, to produce video interviews with football fans for its online video wall.

The recruits work on a freelance basis and are given flip cameras to shoot the videos. As part of the project, they will all receive training in interviewing techniques, how to approach the public and the legal issues at stake, Winkball's Jennifer Brogan told Journalism.co.uk.

Reporters are all given National Union of Journalists (NUJ) membership as well as uniforms and identification from Winkball, added Brogan, who hopes the videos of the Premiership season will offer a more honest and engaging take on football coverage, involving fans directly. At time of writing 2,389 videos had been posted to the Premier League video wall and 1,254,519 views recorded, according to the site's own stats.

"We want this to be the place that people come to to find out what's really being said. We're not pretending to be the BBC and we're not a football programme either. We offer a massive range of opinions which are entertaining to watch. It can be raw sometimes, but it's always engaging," said Brogan.

The initiative already has a network of 60 reporters in London and 50 elsewhere in the country, which it uses to cover specific news events, assignments and create video walls for corporate clients. Worldwide the site has 50 reporters - including a team in South Africa, who have been kept on following their coverage of the World Cup.

The news service has plans to expand its team of reporters further, but began life as a video-sharing and blogging site comparable to Seesmic or Qik, launched in 2005.

The venture is privately funded and is looking to create multiple revenue streams to support further developments

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