You’ll be hard pressed to find a better digital video success story than Nexstar Media Group’s WNCN in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The team has made creating original video clips for digital a top priority and that shows in the stats. In October, the station amassed well over 2 million video views — smashing their previous record by some 300,000 views.  Most months of 2019, they’ve seen year-to-year growth around 600 percent.

None of this would be possible without what Raleigh has labeled its “Digital Mini Studio.”  Modeled after the workflow of the WFLA Now system in Tampa, this system focuses on creating quick, on-demand video for all stories posted to CBS17.com.  It’s the work of Chief Engineer Chuck Stanley.

“We would not have been able to accomplish all of this without Chuck’s enthusiasm and expertise,” said CBS 17 News Director Ed Trauschke.

The workflow allows personnel to jump in front of a system and quickly crank out high-quality clips with graphics.  In a matter of minutes, those clips are up on their website collecting views.  The team is no longer waiting on newscasts to add video to their stories.

“We went to Chuck with the idea, and he designed it from scratch,” said CBS 17’s Digital Executive Producer Jeff Reeves.  “He cobbled together old pieces of equipment.  Then he wrote the software to allow graphics, video, live shots — all as a one person operation.”

Reeves says many of the top videos each month come from the system — and utilizing it regularly has helped the full team better embrace the need to quickly get video to web stories.

While it’s a great success story, this isn’t where it ends.   Stanley continues to look for options to improve the system and innovate elsewhere.

“He’s constantly tweaking the system to make it more user friendly,” added Trauschke. “He’s currently drawing up the plans for a larger, full-fledged digital studio that will allow us to program small talk shows and mini-debates.”

For his role innovating in the digital space, we’re proud to honor Chuck Stanley as the November Digital First Impact Award winner!