Increasingly, TV newsmagazines are reaching out to viewers with digital shorts leading up, or even following, longer TV reports.
“60 Minutes” takes viewers behind the scenes with “60 Minutes Overtime.” “48 Hours” produces Web Extras, like this tour of a Costa Rican hideaway that was the scene of a crime at the center of tomorrow night’s season premiere. “Dateline” went so far as to produce a web-only episode on the Oscar Pistorius verdict a few weeks ago.
“It’s not just extra material,” says Terri Lichstein who oversees digital for ABC’s “20/20.” “It’s very new, very original. They are companion pieces.”
Lichstein was also the senior producer for tonight’s “20/20” season debut, as David Muir investigates the Slender Man stabbing in Wisconsin. Lichstein ordered up a web-only piece to familiarize viewers on the Slender Man phenomenon. “It’s the kind of thing people want to know,” Lichstein tells TVNewser. “This takes the digital experience in terms of storytelling one step further.” WATCH: