Here in Contra Costa County, the local daily newspaper (to which I still subscribe), the Contra Costa Times, used to invite residents to sit in on the editorial budget meeting, those closed-door sessions in which the newspaper’s editors discuss the day’s stories and decide which ones make it to the front page. (If you’ve seen or read “All the President’s Men,” you know how important these meetings can be in deciding what grabs the public’s attention.)

Ragan Communications, as part of its reinvention of itself, has launched “BalkTalk,” a brief video of the company’s equivalent of an editorial budget meeting.

(Disclosure: I have a financial relationship with Ragan Communications.)

These videos run on the newly launched Ragan homepage, with a longer version available at MyRaganTV. The first installment addresses the letter AOL employees received in which the layoff of 2,000 workers was buried deep in the text. While some of the remarks may be a bit forced (knowing you’re being videotaped will affect the way anybody talks), it’s great to see a candid conversation like this among people who deal with communications news on a daily basis. As the team gets more accustomed to being taped, the conversation should become even more natural. CEO Mark Ragan also let me know there are efforts underway to improve the audio, which is a bit tinny. Here’s the video:

One of the things that distinguishes BackTalk from so many other videos is the group dynamic; it’s so much more entertaining that watching a somebody’s video equivalent of a mug shot talk into a camera.