MarketWatch.com wins Loeb Award
June 29, 2007
MarketWatch.com correspondent Alistair Barr has received the Gerald Loeb Award in the News Services or Online Content category for his series “Who Are The Short Sellers?”
“Who Are The Short Sellers?” revealed the upside and downside of short-selling while shedding light on an extraordinary, but poorly covered area of the financial markets. The series can be found at http://www.marketwatch.com/loebaward2007.
NYTimes digital editor on moderating reader comments
June 29, 2007
Interesting reader Q&A with Jim Roberts of The New York Times, who answers questions about digital storytelling, how reporters are adjusting to handle breaking news online, and how The Times handles reader comments.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
June 28, 2007
The Detroit Free Press has a delightful, information-packed multimedia presentation on the 40th anniversary of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.” Highly reccommended reading/viewing/listening for anyone who’s interested in music or online journalism. The main video and story put the song into the context of the civil rights movement and Aretha’s life, with on-camera interviews supplemented by historic photographs and, of course, a toe-tapping soundtrack. As for interactive elements, you can call in and sign your own version of respect, or listen to others’ attempts. All together now, “What you want…”
‘It might be porn, but it’s news’
June 27, 2007
Where do you draw the line with online video? For the Associated Press, at least, it was strippers at a golf course. The AP declined to transmit amateur video posted on the Pocono Record newspaper’s web site to illustrate a story about scantily clad women giving lap dances at Cherry Valley Golf Course — the controversy being that they were visible from a nearby public road. “I didn’t see it as offering a lot toward the story other than blurry images of a girl in a bikini and a guy sitting in a chair with golfers playing through,” Kevin Roach, executive producer for online video at AP, told The Morning Call newspaper. “Our concerns were primarily for our customers. I have to be the gatekeeper for them.”
Pocono Record executive director Bill Watson defended his paper’s decision to post the video: “‘It’s news. It might be porn, but it’s news,” he said.
Watson said no readers had complained and that the Web story had received a record 140,000 hits by Tuesday night.
”I think the Web is not the print newspaper,” he said. ”We wouldn’t put takeouts from the video in the print paper. It’s a different animal. On the Web, you have the choice of looking at a story.”
Online Journalism Awards deadline nears
June 26, 2007
The deadline for submissions to the Online Journalism Awards is June 30. Sites created between July 1, 2006 and Jume 30, 2007 are eligible for submission. Find details about the awards and how to submit here.
A distributed content world
June 25, 2007
CBS is reportedly going “widget crazy” in an effort to spread its content far and wide.
Chris Marentis, the CEO of Clearspring, says:
The networks realize the distributed content world is where it is going. They have to take their content, unleash it, and expand their audiences. They need to be where people are.
HuffingtonPost to launch election citizen journalism project in July
June 25, 2007
Arianna Huffington, of the Huffington Post, and Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at New York University, are planning on launching a new site in which bloggers will cover the top candidates in each party, starting in July.
We’re calling it Off The Bus (OffTheBus.Net), a name that captures the essence of what we’re looking to accomplish. Our disparate mix of citizen reporters won’t be part of the mainstream pack covering the campaigns — and will come at it from a wide range of different angles and perspectives, adding a new dimension to campaign journalism.
You can click here to sign up to become one of them.
CBCNews.ca partners with Technorati
June 24, 2007
CBCNews.ca has partnered with Technorati.com, becoming the world’s first broadcaster website to do so. CBCNews.ca stories now include direct links to blogs around Canada and the globe that are discussing the news, and a new section at cbcnews.ca/blogwatch, highlights news stories and comments that are generating the most discussion among the 86 million blogs tracked by Technorati.
Miami Herald videocast
June 24, 2007
What the 5! is a weekday videocast that highlights the talk stories of the day, and provides interactive links to stories, videos and quizzes on MiamiHerald.com. “Web anchors J.R. Biersmith and Toni Gonzalez provide a daily dose of South Florida buzz; the hottest stories being talked about plus events and new trends in South Florida.”
You can check out a promo for the feature here, and get the full videocast on this page.
31 pages and counting…
June 21, 2007
The Lansing State Journal published the names and salaries of some 53,000 state employees on a searchable database. The comments on the database are robust to say the least, and include one reader who posted the editor’s home address, phone number and property records … public records aren’t just for the media anymore.