The Dallas Morning News is experimenting with more video storytelling on its site, and in general I think the effort is worthwhile. Yesterday and today provided a couple of examples of how it can be effective, as well as how it should alter the format to provide more engaging content that adds to instead of just repeats what you read on your screen.

The video posted with the editorial last night regarding U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s visit to Dallas was well worth watching. Not because of Keven Willey’s narration. (She did fine, but I do think an interview format, like the New York Times’ TimesSelect uses, would be much better.) It’s because in showing a clip of Duncan talking to the editorial board, it gave insight into a glaring weakness of the editorial.

(Full disclosure: Last month, I was turned down in my application for a job on the editorial board. Take that for what you will. I took it that they’re terrified of awesome. Or they found a million people who are smarter and more insightful. That’s possible too.)

The editorial does a good job of summarizing Duncan’s main points from the clip, in that he says DISD could lead the way in sending its best teachers to its worst-performing schools, instead of to its highest achievers.

But the editorial glossed over that you need to dramatically alter the pay scale to better match the private sector to do so. Duncan says that it would drastically change the game in terms of attracting top talent if you told aspiring teachers they could make a $100,000 by the time they’re 30.

You know what else it would do? Get you slammed in a front-page story in the DMN! Complete with video!

The editorial tries to gloss over this by barely acknowledging the crucial point that, “Yes, the lure of high salaries can help, but …” No. No buts. That is step one. Yes, there are other factors, but they can’t be addressed until you hit step one. That’s the way the world works.

Look, I could easily quote dozens of DMN staffers who say they want the paper to do anything it can to survive in these troubled times for big city dailies, but as soon as I said that meant bringing in people who make twice as much as they do, they would shriek.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t necessary. It does mean maybe that's not an intellectually honest story. It's fishing with dynamite. That's not the paper's job; that's TV's job. The DMN is there to provide context, to show the big picture, not to be a vehicle for every caterwauling source.

The other video was less successful. It ran with business columnist Mitchell Schnurman’s contrarian piece on the Nasher vs. Museum Tower battle. The column takes on the media orthodoxy suggesting the Nasher is unquestionably right in its charges against Museum Tower. I have quibbles with it — I don’t know anyone who didn’t think MT was going to have trouble selling those spaces two years ago — but it’s a fresh perspective.

The video (which I couldn’t get to play again for me this morning … oh, dear) tries to inject TV production values like a hero shot of Schnurman standing by the tower as he dramatically reads the script.

C’mon, folks. Journos are word nerds and policy dorks, not TV people. Get someone else in the newsroom to interview these reporters, and bring out additional information and stuff that didn’t make it in the column so we can better evaluate its take.

Elsewhere

Great look by Michael Granberry at why the Dallas Museum of Art is now the (mostly) first free-admission big-city museum in the country.

This Dallas policewoman rapper story? Yawn. Don’t care. The racist comments will be fun, though.

Before I took this gig, I was talking with Robert Abtahi and others about being a consultant in the District 14 race to fill Angela Hunt’s seat. (I handled media for Hunt in her last race, which is sort of like handling ego inflation for Dale Hansen — you just show up and take credit for success.)

Now that I’m not going to do that, I can say here what I would have charged thousands of dollars to say, in various PowerPoints and memos: Praise everything Angela did. Own the “I loved her more” debate. Throw in how much you hate the Trinity River Project. Drop mic.

Retweets

Oh, Lord, let’s hope so.

How to say “oh, bite me, HP” and not sound childish? Discuss.