Uticaod.com evaluation No. 1: Where are the videos?

This week's posts will focus exclusively on my hometown newspaper's website, uticaod.com. More specifically, I will be evaluating and critiquing the site based on several of the topics that we have discussed thus far in my online journalism class.

Today's topic: Video player presentation

Any loyal follower of uticaod.com will tell you that the site has made great strides in its delivery of multimedia over the past year. 

OD photo (and multimedia) editor William Cannon is constantly encouraging his staff, and newsroom reporters, to incorporate more multimedia - photos, slideshows, audio and video - into their work. 

While the OD is likely still not entirely up to par in this area, the improvements are undeniable. The site's recent presentation of a video debate between the candidates for the local congressional race - which I blogged about last week - is a perfect example of the strides that have been made.

However, a problem persists.

While there are many more videos now available, they are not as easy to find as they should be. What it comes down to is that the OD's video player is not well enough highlighted (and positioned) on the homepage. 

As can be see in the screenshot the left, the video player is buried at the bottom right of the homepage, hiding it from many of the site's visitors.

The OD would be better off placing the player higher up on the page and perhaps more toward the center in order to better catch the viewer's eye. This would likely increase the viewership and popularity of the site's multimedia content.

The Miami Herald's new video player (and its presentation) is one that I think the OD would benefit from following: