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Dim reception for video at Wall Street Journal

Radio and TV were part of the DNA at MarketWatch.com (NWS) when we started it 10 years ago. 

That means, back in the days of dial-up, we were pushing streaming audio and video down the line.  Even as WSJ.com and Forbes.com were figuring out how to get their plain old text into HTML, we were recording, concerting, uploading, and pushing multimedia content.

So, you can understand why this morning’s CNNMoney.com (TWX) ad in the Wall Street Journal is so disappointing.  CNNMoney.com is touting Nielsen’s report on online video usage for October,  showing it had the lion’s share (57%) of all business and finance video viewing online.

The pie chart says Yahoo Finance was second, MSN Money was third, followed by Forbes.com, CNBC.com (GE), Reuters (TRI), TheStreet.com (TSCM), BusinessWeek Online, and Other. 

Where are WSJ.com or MarketWatch.com?  It would seem, they are in “Other.” Inside a print-focused editorial system, it’s real hard to get the scribblers’ contributions.  Blame deadline pressures, editors’ propensity to check, recheck, and check every word, and a reluctance by some writers to come out from behind their bylines and be seen. MW and WSJ spend a lot of resources producing video and virtually none promoting it.

The simple fact is that audio and video are not a priority; their Managers haven’t been successful in selling it to their bosses, and their bosses haven’t had the time or interest in seeing the possibilities, i.e. ad sales.  But CNNMoney does, and then even used the pages of the video-challenged Wall Street Journal to say so.

But that doesn’t explain why people aren’t watching video on these two high-ranking Web sites.  There’s plenty of content, posted everyday.  Some of it is analysis, some opinion, but precious little of it is ‘breaking’ news coverage.  Goes back to that problem if getting the reporters’ attention and contribution.

Well, it’s just disappointing.  MW and WSJ video ... ya coulda been a contender.

Webbys add video/film and advertising

The 11th annual Webby Awards announced its competition is expanding to include interactive advertising and original film and video first shown on the Internet. 

Webby judges will evaluate nominees in 60 categories of Web sites (music, travel, newspaper, etc.).  The interactive advertising category will have 8 awards for areas such as viral and e-mail marketing. The film and video competition will honor work in 11 fields including animation, comedy, and reality.  There will be three awards for blogs and one for podcasting.

Honors for advertising and film/video will mark the participation of well-known industry people.  Judges will include executives from major advertising agencies such Worldwide Tribal DDB, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and Ogilvy & Mather.  Larry Aidem of the Sundance Channel and Harvey Weinstein of Weinstein Co. will help evaluate the film and video entries.

A spokeswoman for the Webbys was at a loss to explain why so little attention was being paid to podcasting, less than two weeks before almost 3,000 podcasters and industry people are due to attend the 2nd annual Portable Media Expo.  Perhaps, she suggested, it's because there already are the PodcastAwards.com. (A U.K. firm has already registered Poddies.com, but it's for sale.)

Webby entries are being solicited, at fees ranging from $95 to $195, until the end of October.  Nominees will be announced next April, and winners will be honored in June.

What’s good on the Web?

Here’s proof that there's more to the Web than sharing videos and photographs.  The Institute for Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland announced winners in this year’s Knight-Batten Innovations competition. 

The grand prize winner was Global Voices Online, a Web site about how news affects daily life and conversations in more than 130 countries.  It is sponsored by Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.  The site is produced by multi-lingual editors who sift through blogs and podcasts.

Other efforts judged award-worthy by “J-Lab” were:

HealthNewsReview.org  A clearinghouse for health news launched by a University of Minnesota professor to help journalists write accurate medical reports and help consumers find useful health news.

Transparent Newsroom The Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review invites readers into creation of the daily newspaper by Webcasting every day's news meetings, blogging its editorial decisions and responding to reader questions and criticism.

IBISEYE.com This Sarasota Herald-Tribune web site calls up 155 years of hurricane history, tracks real-time Atlantic Ocean tropical storm activity, and predicts future damage to eight million properties in the path of any storm.

U.S. Congress Votes Database This WashingtonPost.com searchable database, updated daily, enables users to research every recorded vote in the U.S. House and Senate since January 1991.

Bakersfield Californian's Social Media Platform  "Participatory media platform" that allows local residents to build community networks by creating profiles, adding to a Friends list, and submitting stories, photos and events for publication.