Weekly newspaper The Forester has launched its own internet video service – Ftv.

Three editorial staff at the paid-for Gloucestershire title are setting the standard among the three newspapers that share its website hosting at thisisgloucestershire.co.uk.

It is the first title among its stable-mates The Citizen and Gloucestershire Echo to launch such regular news bulletins on video.

Breaking news is being accompanied by film footage – and stories covered have included drugs raids, a train crash, barn fires and the arrival of The Rifles at a local army base.

Sport and major summer events, such as carnivals, have been given the video treatment and, although it is still early days, the hit rate has delivered results.

The train crash report aired via YouTube was the 12th most watched video in the UK and the 50th most viewed news and politics video in the world that day.

The reporting team of trainees Jenni Silver, Nial Anderson and chief reporter Rachael Orchard have their normal print journalism duties running alongside the video reporting which means creating a careful balance between the two.

Having secured sponsorship from a local Nissan dealer, Ftv is well on its way to becoming a viable commercial entity. Staff filmed and edited a video advert which is embedded in the news bulletins.

Editor Viv Hargreaves said: “I’m absolutely delighted that my news team have shown such enthusiasm for the multi-media approach which is really putting The Forester on the map. It has certainly enhanced their experience of journalism and should prove useful to them in future. My deputy Jason Chare has played a leading role encouraging this.

"We’ve been experimenting with video clips for about a year but it is only in the past few months - since acquiring a decent camera and mics - that we are really going places.

"We’re being given invaluable advice by television journalist Patrick O’Hagan who was one of Northcliffe’s very first team of video journalists in the 1990s. So it’s a case of watch this space - thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/ftv."