Our parent company's new initiative is to provide you, the readers, with loads of short videos about what is going on in your communities.

To make this happen, they've given all the reporters tiny digital video cameras.

I think this is a great idea. We sorely need a way to get new - and younger - readers. Multimedia journalism is the future, and unlike the typewriter-pecking, whiskey-slugging fogies of newsroom days of yore, I embrace this future.

There are more ways to tell a story than "WEST CHESTER -- Borough council voted yesterday to..."

The video work is rough right now - we're still learning how to use these tiny little cameras. Here's today's attempt by yours truly (in it, West Chester Borough administrators talk about the coming snow):

Note - these cameras don't come with tripods. I'm working on a way to cut down on the shaking.

If you're curious, here's yesterday's ultra classy effort (again by yours truly ... things can only get better from here. I'm composing the voiceover on the spot, as I'm holding the camera. The voiceover microphones have not yet come in):