Good use of multimedia to drive traffic

Thumbs up, Buffalo News.

I’ve been hard on the newspaper for not being twitter savvy, but I’ve got to praise its latest multimedia effort.

The News put up a 7-plus minute interview with Buffalo Sabres Goaltender Ryan Miller. That’s smart thinking. Miller and the Buffalo Sabres are hugely popular in Buffalo and Western New York. (Case in point: NHL games in most U.S. markets got a rating of  less than 2.3 for the 2008-09 season through Jan. 11. In Buffalo, the rating was 8.87–Number 1 U.S. market. Click here for more detail.)

The interview not only allows Sabres fans to learn more about Miller’s life and interests off the ice; it will drive traffic to the Buffalo News site.

And that, as Buffalo hockey announcer Rick Jeanneret would say, is “where mama hides the cookies.”