News on News - Websites

Journalists Richard Justice and Paul Hagen Join MLB.com

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:59:26 +0000

MLB Advanced Media has announced that it has hired sports journalists Richard Justice and Paul Hagen, formerly of the Houston Chronicle and Philadelphia Daily News, respectively.

Justice and Hagen, who officially began at this week's Baseball Winter Meetings, join the most comprehensive corps of baseball journalists in the world as part of MLB.com's editorial team, providing unique perspectives of the game in print and as on-air analysts.

"Richard is a magnificent addition to our team," said Dinn Mann, executive vice president, content, MLBAM. "He has an exemplary multi-platform track record, tremendous contacts and is an extremely talented, must-read writer."

Justice joins MLB.com as an executive correspondent after working for 11 years as a columnist at the Houston Chronicle. Prior to that, Justice spent 14 years at The Washington Post, where during his tenure he covered the Baltimore Orioles, Washington Redskins and Washington Wizards. In addition, Justice has served as a radio host and national television correspondent.

A Texas native, Justice graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in journalism.

Hagen, an MLB.com senior correspondent who has covered baseball for nearly four decades, was an award-winning national baseball writer at the Philadelphia Daily News for the past 10 years.

"Paul is a superb reporter," said Mann. "He has relentless newsgathering skills and is a likable, highly respected journalist."

He previously was the Phillies beat reporter for the paper, covering the team for 15 years. Before joining the Philadelphia Daily News, Hagen worked as a beat reporter for the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram and Dallas Times-Herald and Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered the Los Angeles Dodgers and Texas Rangers, respectively.

A former president of the Baseball Writers Association of America, Hagen was a finalist for the 2012 J.G. Taylor Spink Award, which honors outstanding baseball writing.

Former CNBC Anchor Nicole Lapin Launches Recessionista.com

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:06:29 +0000

Nothing But Gold Productions has announced the launch of Recessionista.com, the first in a series of media platforms to produce female-focused career, lifestyle and personal finance content geared toward an 18-34 year old demographic with no other option for quality content on such topics.

The new site will offer accessible financial guidance and investing advice to youngwomen who aspire to be frugal, but still fabulous, during the economic recession.

In addition to providing women with practical career advice such as 'Things NEVER to Wear to Work' or 'How to Play to Your Work Weaknesses', the site will aim to decode often intimidating financial topics in an easy-to-navigate laywoman's format.

"It is not a coincidence that Recessionista is the first initiative launched by Nothing But Gold Productions," said Nicole Lapin, CEO of Nothing But Gold. "The financial journalism world is devoid of content specifically geared towardswomen my age. We are in dire need of advice and information to intelligently guide our financial decisions in a fun, sassy, non-judgey way."

Recessionista will provide money-saving tips and candid advice for building a career and thriving in the workplace. The site will also feature celebrity interviews and profiles of successful female entrepreneurs.

"Ladies talk about everything personal before they talk about money," Lapin added. "Recessionista opens up the conversation once and for all and proves that discussing money isn't as scary as it seems."

Recessionista readers will also enjoy exclusive deals on brand-name clothing, beauty, wellness and entertainment retailers through the site's "Deals and Steals" section. Recessionista and its corresponding Twitter feed, @gorecessionista, will also offer readers breaking news on the latest sales on the Web before companies announce them to the public.

"It was extremely important for me to not only talk about how every woman can navigate and succeed through this challenging economic time, but actually help her do just that," Lapin said.

TheStreet.com Posts Loss, but Revenue Rises

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:07:21 +0000

The financial website TheStreet.com reported Wednesday a net loss of $1.7 million in the second quarter while delivering its highest revenue total in nearly three years.

Michael Baron of TheStreet.com writes, “The New York-based online financial news provider on Wednesday reported revenue of $15.1 million from its ongoing businesses in the latest quarter, as both subscription and advertising revenue increased. In the same period a year earlier, the company lost $340,000 on revenue of $14.7 million.

“On an adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) basis, TheStreet earned $700,000 in the latest three months, down slightly from equivalent earnings of $900,000 in the year-ago period.

“‘While the growth rates we experienced in the first quarter moderated as the level of uncertainty in the global financial markets increased and advertisers and investors became more cautious — particularly as the quarter progressed — we nonetheless saw a number of key proof points which confirm to us that the Company’s strategy is gaining traction,’ said Daryl Otte, the company’s CEO, in a press release. ‘Notably, revenue in both our ongoing businesses continued to grow and in total represented the highest it has been in eleven quarters.’

“TheStreet said average monthly unique visitors to its network of sites jumped 33% year over year in the second quarter, according to internal measurements, and that its average number of paid subscriptions totaled 93,125 in the second quarter, a 3.8% increase from year-ago levels.”

Read more here.

Copyright (c) 2011 Talking Biz News.
Any content specified as Talking Biz News content is the intellectual property of Talking Biz News. Any copying, republication or redistribution of such content, including by cacheing, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Talking Biz News.

SmartMoney.com Has a New Look

Wed, 11 May 2011 09:23:54 +0000

Janet Paskin, the editor of SmartMoney.com, writes about the personal finance magazine’s new look on the Internet.

Paskin writes, “You’ll still find breaking news and advice from our award-winning staff, in addition to our full suite of portfolio and market-research tools and weekly favorites like ‘Ten Things They Won’t Tell You.’ But we’ve also reached across the Dow Jones family to gather the best personal finance news and analysis from the Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Barron’s, and the Dow Jones Newswires — all at SmartMoney.com.

“We’ve built new tools, with more on the way, and reorganized the site so that it’s easier to find the information you need, when you need it. Here are some features we think you’ll particularly like:

“Home page: Breaking news, analysis and smart advice from SmartMoney and the rest of the Dow Jones family, as well as ’5 Must-Reads’ the stories you just can’t miss. Portfolios, watch-lists and market data are all here too, in the Investor Center on the right side of the page, along with daily investing ideas from across the network.

“Articles: We’ve made it easier to share our award-winning journalism with your friends (or send advice to your children) via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. We’ve also added relevant tools, guides and references, so you can turn information into action, when you’re ready.”

Read more here.

TheStreet.com CEO Discusses 1Q Results, Touts Journalism Standards

Sat, 07 May 2011 12:46:04 +0000

Daryl Otte, the CEO of TheStreet.com, talked on a conference call about the financial news site’s first quarter financial results.

The company reported revenue of $14.1 million in the quarter, up 7 percent from the same quarter in 2010. There was a net loss of $2.6 million compared to a net loss of $1.4 million in the first quarter of 2010.

Otte stated, “Our strategic plan is designed to build long-term profitable growth and value on the proven and profitable business model inherent in critical media. We are applying this model against our key assets, which are TheStreet’s strong market position and brands in the finance circle, our robust editorial content and our strong advertising and subscription monetization skills.

“We are focused on generating original, top quality, timely content and monetizing the consumption of that content with diverse and robust revenue stream. We create a large volume of content, over 3,000 original articles and 500 videos a month, produced at high journalistic standards with deep domain experience and overlaid with strong publishing skills.

“We also offer an increasingly growing suite of data tool abilities and notably, just this week on our new iPad app. All of this content is produced by our professional in-house editorial team and through a select group of hand-chosen practicing professionals. This content, because of its quality and relevance, affect highly engaged users. Excellent, educated professionals have come to our content for a purpose. These users attract both endemic advertisers in the financial category and non-endemic advertisers that are attracted to the demographic characteristics of our audience and the high level of engagement they have with our sites.”

Read the entire transcript here.

Rebuilding TheStreet

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:31:07 +0000

Matthew Flamm of Crain’s New York writes Sunday about the overhaul at TheStreet.com, which includes de-emphasizing co-founder Jim Cramer and changing its name to simply TheStreet.

Flamm writes, “In the past year, under CEO Daryl Otte, it has also downsized Mr. Cramer’s presence on its home page and removed him from the chairman’s seat—moves aimed at showcasing a new editorial team and making TheStreet less reliant on its biggest star. Mr. Cramer has long been both an asset and a liability, since investors worry about what TheStreet would be without him.

“But as the company works through a revamp that began with Mr. Otte’s appointment in May 2009, it is holding tight to one part of its heritage: It relies on advertising for only one-third of its revenues and draws the rest from subscriptions.

“With nearly 91,000 subscribers — most of whom were converted to TheStreet’s premium sites from the free flagship, and who now pay $300 to $5,000 a year — the company can boast that it has long been ahead of its time. Sites that rely solely on advertising have been struggling in an increasingly competitive online market.

“Now Mr. Otte is focused on setting up the media company for growth after two straight years of losses.”

Read more here.

MarketWatch Market Data App for iPad Now Available on the App Store

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 15:10:59 +0000

MarketWatch.com, a leading innovator in business and investment news, has announced that its new MarketWatch Market Data app for iPad is now available on the App Store.

The MarketWatch Market Data app for iPad is the definitive source for market data for The Wall Street Journal Digital Network audience. The app was created for active investors to provide access to key market data and news that moves the markets minute-to-minute and throughout the day.

Users can search for real-time quotes, track global markets 24 hours a day, customize watch lists with preferred ticker symbols as well as share news and quotes via Facebook and Twitter. The app also includes a market timeline that allows users to scroll back over the previous 24 hours of global market data and news in order to glean insights, spot trends or delve further into a market change.

"This fresh new app will meet the needs of the heaviest market data users with a complete offering above and beyond most app experiences," said David Callaway, editor in chief of MarketWatch.com. "Whether used at a desk to keep a close watch or on the road for anywhere access, the app complements our website for a second-screen environment, giving users the ability to follow the global markets and up-to-the-minute developments that are so important to active investors."

In addition to real-time stock quotes and market-moving news, features of the MarketWatch Market Data app include:

Access to the latest MarketWatch.com analysis and commentary through seven main sections: Industries, ETFs, Mutual Funds, Currencies, Bonds, Futures and News & Analysis;
An exchange rate calculator;
Calendar in the bonds section, which provides updates for what's happening in the present week;
The latest market stories from The Wall Street Journal.

Launch sponsors for the app include Cathay Pacific Airways, Invesco and Volkswagen of America, Inc.

The MarketWatch Market Data app is available for a one-time download price of $3.99 from the App Store.

TheStreet.com and Journal Register Co. Strike Content Sharing Agreement

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 13:22:16 +0000

Financial news site TheStreet.com and media company Journal Register Co. have entered into an agreement where the two will share content.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

TheStreet.com will provide national business, financial markets and personal finance content to the Journal Register’s newspapers and websites, while the Journal Register’s media properties will provide local business coverage to TheStreet.com and its websites.

The Journal Register’s papers include the New Haven (Conn.) Register, The Oakland (Mich.) Press, Delaware County Daily (Pa.) and Sunday Times, The Macomb (Mich.) Daily, the Lorain (Ohio) Daily Journal, and the Trentonian (N.J.).

The Journal Register emerged from bankruptcy court protection in 2009.

“This deal greatly expands our company’s overall offerings and, at the same time, enables each of our respective properties the ability to use their news teams more effectively with a particular focus on local news,” said Journal Register CEO John Paton in a statement. “We are extremely excited to be working with TheStreet in what promises to be a very well received, mutually beneficial venture.”

To see how one of the Journal Register paper’s plans to add TheStreet.com content to its site, check out the business news page of the New Haven Register.

CBS Moneywatch Wins Two Awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:25:42 +0000

CBS MoneyWatch, a personal finance site that spans TV, radio, Web and mobile, today announced it has won two "Best in Business" awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW).

The site was one of three winners in the General Excellence category for sites attracting up to 2.5 million average unique monthly visitors. Ilyce Glink, writer of "Home Equity," was awarded Best Blog in the category reaching the same sized audience.

CBS MoneyWatch was launched less than two years ago in the midst of the Great Recession, offering worried Web users a skeptical and honest guidebook to the world of money. To lead it, Editor-in-Chief Eric Schurenberg assembled a team of veteran journalists from print, the Web and television, including executive editor Jack Otter, managing editor Rachel Elson, and executive producer Marianne Wilman.

Ilyce Glink's first post on "Loan Modification Hell," in which Americans find they are unable to refinance their homes to prevent foreclosure, attracted the attention and comments of hundreds of people facing this difficult situation. She has since helped more than 20 readers save their home, worth in aggregate more than $5 million.

"I am hugely honored by this recognition from SABEW," said Glink. "Since 2009, I have been trying to help homeowners cut the red tape that is causing so much heartache across the country. I hope this award inspires others to shine a light on this complex but ultimately solvable problem."

"We are very proud of Ilyce for work in helping Americans better understand how to navigate our complex financial system," said Eric Schurenberg, Editor in Chief of CBS MoneyWatch. "On our site we strive everyday to help readers make sense of the challenges they face in managing their money in uncertain times, and it's an honor to have our work recognized by SABEW."

CBS MoneyWatch previously won three Digital Azbee awards in 2009. And, in 2010, it received SABEW recognition for the Ultimate Job Security Guide (two awards); Kathy Kristof's blog, "Devil in the Details"; and the feature, "After the Great Recession."

Jim Cramer Steps Down as Chair of TheStreet.com

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 15:40:38 +0000

Jim Cramer, a co-founder of TheStreet.com and host of “Mad Money” on CNBC, has stepped down as chairman of the board of the financial news site’s parent company.

Cramer will remain on the board, but he’s being replaced as chair by Christopher “Woody” Marshall.

Marshall is general partner at Technology Crossover Ventures, a private equity and venture capital firm with $7.7 billion under management focused on information technology companies. Prior to joining TCV in 2008, he spent 12 years at Trident Capital, a leading venture capital and private equity firm focused on the software, business services and Internet markets.

In a statement, Cramer said, “I am thrilled to be handing this post to Woody, who knows our business well, and I am confident will make an outstanding chairperson.”

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Technology Crossover Ventures invested in TheStreet.com in 2007. According to the company’s most-recent proxy statement, Marshall has been a director of TheStreet.com since August 2009.

Technology Crossover Ventures owns more than 5 million shares, or 15.9 percent, of TheStreet.com, making it the company’s largest investor. Cramer is the second-largest investor, with 4 million shares, or 12.8 percent.

Stockopedia Becomes the First Social Investing Platform to Launch Real-time Analytics for Contributors

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 22:35:08 +0000

Stockopedia, the premier social media site for UK stock market investors, today announces the launch of its Publisher Analytics platform that allows third party publishers and bloggers on the site to more accurately measure readership and engagement for their content on a real-time basis, making Stockopedia the first social media investing site to offer such a service.

Stockopedia CEO Edward Croft said: “Although Google Analytics has understandably been the mainstay analytics tool on the Web for some time, this information is typically only available to the website owner. A number of large scale US content curation and aggregation sites such as Facebook and Twitter have begun to internalise analytics functionality to provide greater feedback to contributing publishers, but this level of visibility is a first for publishers in the finance and investing space.”

Publishers on Stockopedia contributors now have access to a personalised dashboard allowing them to view real-time readership statistics across all their published content. Features include the ability to track and chart readership details across different timeframes and versus their average performance. Publishers and subscribing companies can track the level of investor engagement with their content and any social media reactions aggregated from across the web.

Croft added: “Our objective is to give our authors the same level of insight and feedback as if they published the content on their own blog or website. We partner with top names in the financial world - including research houses, video producers, fund managers and bloggers - and it’s important to ensure they maximise their return on investment in creating and syndicating content. We believe that this is the most granular analytics system available for financial publishers on the web.”

The Publisher Analytics platform leverages MongoDB, a document-oriented database adept at handling high volumes of information, well suited for large scale data processing and most famously used at CERN for handling data generated by the Large Hadron Collider.

Ramin Keene, Stockopedia CTO, said: “We’ve been using MongoDB for an experimental internal analytics system, monitoring activity by our 100,000+ users and around 20,000 investment topics, stocks and sectors. We felt confident that we could expand the application using the same architecture at scale for all our users to have access to personalised, real time analytics about how the investment community is interacting with their content. Our aim is to ensure that our tools keep the Stockopedia userbase - whether they be investors, financial publishers or listed companies - as informed as possible, as instantaneously as we possibly can.”

Stockopedia is now experimenting with using its data processing systems to build recommendation, categorisation and discovery features that mine all the latest financial news and commentary across the UK stock market.

Croft concluded: ““As part of our mission to level the information playing field, we partner with financial publishers and investment bloggers to help them reach the broadest possible audience through Stockopedia and the wider Web. We see our Publisher Analytics platform as a key part of this partnership and are excited to be able to provide them with this new functionality”.

Cramer Forgoes Salary and Bonus in Favour of Royalty Payments from TheStreet.com

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 16:26:04 +0000

TheStreet.com founder Jim Cramer has a new, three-year employee contract that began earlier this month where he won’t be paid a salary or a bonus from the financial news site and will instead be paid a royalty fee based on the revenue produced from one of its subscription products.

In addition, the host of CNBC’s “Mad Money” signaled that the deal would be his last long-term employment agreement with the site.

The royalty will be based on the revenue derived from TheStreet.com’s Action Alerts PLUS subscription service that he authors. Cramer also will receive a grant of restricted stock units, which will vest over three years.

Cramer’s salary in 2010 was $1.87 million, although he delayed his pay raise until later in the year. The previous year, his pay was $1.56 million.

“Given the length of this new contract and my current plans for the way I plan to spend my time beyond that, I expect that this will be the last long-term agreement between me and the company,” said Cramer in a statement filed with the SEC back in December. (I can’t find where any media covered the announcement.) “Although I’d expect to continue participating in the company’s success beyond that in some manner, I’ve made this decision now as I want to be mindful to set the stage for a transition far enough out into the future that ensures the business will be well prepared to continue, from a position of strength, beyond my involvement.”

Action Alerts PLUS is where Cramer tells subscribers what trades he’s going to make – buy or sell – with the funds of his charitable trust, before he makes the trade. The portfolio in his charitable trust — 100 percent of the profits will go to charity — has consistently beaten the S&P 500 since its inception nine years ago.

The SEC filing can be found here.

Cramer owns more than 4 million shares of the company, or about 12.5 percent. At Tuesday’s closing price of $2.96, those shares are worth more than $12 million.

FOX Sports and NESN Announce New Digital Partnership

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 14:24:48 +0000

FOXSports.com on MSN and NESN have announced a new digital content sharing partnership that will make NESN.com the exclusive provider of New England and Boston sports news on one of the most popular sports web sites in the country.

The agreement allows FOXSports.com the right to both publish and directly link to NESN’s sports news content and provides for significant cross promotional opportunities between the two sites.

“The FOX Sports Local websites are the fastest-growing regional sports websites in the country,” said Mike Hall, NESN’s Director of New Media. “We are proud to join the FOX Sports family of local websites to help extend their reach in the northeast while helping NESN to continue to grow our site as the premier destination for fans of New England sports.”

“Providing our readers with the latest news in New England sports greatly enhances FOXSports.com and complements the coverage from all of our existing local sites. We’re excited to partner with the leading sports website in that market,” said Kyle McDoniel, Vice President of Business Development for FOXSports.com.

iVillage.co.uk celebrates 10th Anniversary with Redesign and New Celebrity Blogger Line-up

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:31:18 +0000

iVillage.co.uk, NBC Universal’s women’s digital brand and the UK’s leading online community for women, has announced the redesign of its website to coincide with its 10th anniversary.

iVillage.co.uk has signed an exclusive deal with Web TV Enterprise to stream its premium video on-demand content on the re-launched site. iVillage.co.uk will feature daily updates from E! News, food recipes, gardening advice, health and beauty tips and daily horoscopes across its content channels.

The video content has been selected to complement iVillage.co.uk’s editorial offering. Web TV Enterprise will work alongside iVillage.co.uk’s sales team to deliver innovative advertising solutions for brands wanting to reach women online. Web TV Enterprise operates the largest premium online video ad network in the UK and presents advertisers with the widest range of video channels on the web.

The redesign introduces a range of enhancements to its already established and vibrant community message boards, users’ profiles and its advertiser offerings. A line-up of celebrity bloggers have also joined the site, including former X Factor winners, Alexandra Burke and Shayne Ward. This comes on the heels of the successful re-launch of iVillage in the U.S.

The community message boards have been refreshed with the introduction of new features including a new design, expanded board settings, faster posting features, more efficient search and easier navigation. Profile pages have been upgraded with new personalisation options, allowing users to add photos, customise their profile pages, manage privacy settings and save their favourite iVillage articles.

Branded message boards have also been enhanced to incorporate new creative advertising solutions, such as a new skinnable message board. Additionally, for the first time, users are now able to post comments over mobile devices. Thousands of conversations take place every week over the message boards on everything from relationships, pregnancy and parenting, to health and entertainment.

Alexandra Burke will blog on beauty and Shayne Ward will pen a weekly ‘agony uncle’ blog. Former Blue Peter presenter, Katy Hill, will comment on family and parenting issues, and former What Not to Wear and Britain’s Next Top Model presenter, Lisa Butcher, joins as a fashion blogger. They join an impressive roster of resident celebrity bloggers, including former Changing Rooms presenter, Linda Barker, on interior design; The Apprentice winner, Michelle Dewberry, who provides financial advice; along with Dr. Pam Spurr, iVillage.co.uk’s sex and relationship advisor.

Based on open source technology, the new site enables content to be produced even faster, and allows innovative advertising units from the U.S. site to be easily deployed across the UK site. The ‘pushdown’, an auto-expandable ad developed by the US-based Online Publishers Association and currently used by iVillage.com, is the first to be introduced. The ad appears on screen as a narrow strip, but once clicked, the user can experience rich interaction and play

“We have experienced tremendous growth from the relaunch of iVillage in the U.S. and we are excited to replicate that success in the UK. The new site will be designed for today’s woman who lives her life online, creating an easy experience for her to manage her own needs as well as her family’s. Community will be front and center, allowing users to interact with millions of like-minded women on topics ranging from food to parenting to entertainment to health.” said Mike Skagerlind, SVP and GM of iVillage. “The addition of new celebrity bloggers will further enhance the site’s wealth of content from industry experts. From an advertiser perspective, the new technology behind the site means the very latest ad products from the US can be brought to market that offer the most creative and engaging advertising solutions. The redesign brings together technology, design, editorial and community to allow us to adapt even more quickly in future, whether to the changing expectations of our users or to new technology as it emerges.”

The iVillage.co.uk redesign comes on the back of its foray into web TV earlier in the year with Trinny and Susannah ‘What they did next’, which was subsequently broadcast by Channel 4, and Strictly Money, a weekly consumer finance edition of the CNBC programme. Further web TV series deals are planned for 2011.

Biz News Site Goes Dark Amid Issues

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 01:22:37 +0000

James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times reports Saturday that the iBusinessReporting.com site founded by former Times business reporter Bill Lobdell and fraud investigator Barry Minkow has closed down.

Lobdell writes, “We live in a time of experimentation and reinvention in journalism, and there’s reason to admire anyone looking for new ways to pay for investigative journalism. Yet some of those innovators, including Minkow and Lobdell, have been too ready to throw out the best habits, such as business conflict restrictions, of the ‘old’ journalism. The iBizReporting boys disagreed with that notion, saying they were truer to the audience because they were more transparent about their motivations. They contrasted that to reporters who they said kept too many secrets, particularly about their political beliefs.

“Tackling that subject would take more space than we have here, but suffice it to say that business entanglements can be the most corrupting for a reason. An ideological bias might be suppressed (I’ve seen many reporters trash candidates of their own political party), but a profit motive is forever. That’s why Times Business reporters are not allowed to invest in stocks of companies they cover.

“Minkow and Lobdell told me this week that the disappearance of iBusinessReporting is not the end. They said that they will continue to investigate companies they suspect through Minkow’s Fraud Discovery Institute ‘as a public service’ but no longer will bet against the stocks, which Lobdell admitted had turned out to be an ‘incredibly tricky’ way to make money.”

Read more here.

Copyright (c) 2010 Talking Biz News.
Any content specified as Talking Biz News content is the intellectual property of Talking Biz News. Any copying, republication or redistribution of such content, including by cacheing, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Talking Biz News.

CBS MoneyWatch Launches Editorial Series on Saving Money this Holiday Season

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 15:51:56 +0000

CBS MoneyWatch, a property of CBS Interactive Inc., today announced a new editorial feature to provide viewers with personal finance advice during the time of year when they're most likely to bust their budgets.

The feature is sponsored by Chase Slate with Blueprint, a new credit card that helps customers manage their spending and borrowing by designing personalized plans to pay down balances faster and save money on interest. The campaign is part of a cross-platform sponsorship promoting Slate from Chase that extends beyond online to CBS's on-air and mobile properties.

Hosted by CBS financial expert Jill Schlesinger, the "Your MoneyWatch" feature will lay out ‘new money rules' for Americans planning their holiday spending. MoneyWatch is a combination of broadcast and digital media that harnesses the power of multiple CBS newsrooms to solve daily financial issues - jobs, housing, health care, taxes and ways to spend and save money. Viewers can sample content weekly on CBS News' "The Early Show," and visit CBS MoneyWatch.com daily for tools, community and more detailed advice to proactively manage their finances.

"CBS and Chase jointly created a comprehensive, cross-platform approach that allows us to engage an audience most interested in watching where their money goes," said Stephen Howard-Sarin, Vice President, Business and Finance Brands, CBS Interactive. "CBS's position as the number one network, combined with its vast online reach and deep financial content, put us in a unique position to deliver this sort of campaign."

"Partnering with CBS MoneyWatch and sponsoring a program covering these financial topics was a natural fit for Slate from Chase," said Tom O'Donnell, senior vice president, Chase Card Services. "With free Blueprint features, Slate offers customers the ability to avoid interest and pay down balances faster, helping customers control their holiday budgets with a plan."

Holiday retail sales are expected to grow in 2010 versus 2009, but this year's purchasers can be characterized as "cautious consumers," according to NPD Group Inc.1 With a broader economic recovery uncertain, people expect to plan expenses and research purchases before stocking up on gifts. "Your MoneyWatch" will address these cautious consumers to help them make the best use of their money each week.

Talking Biz News Turns Five

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:35:10 +0000

Talking Biz News, the daily blog about business journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is five years old today.

During that time, there have been massive changes in business journalism, from the sale of The Wall Street Journal/Barron’s/Marketwatch.com/Dow Jones Newswires to the closing of Business 2.0 and the start and closing of Conde Nast Portolio to the shift in coverage dominance in many cities away from daily newspapers, many of whom have cut their standalone business sections, to weekly business newspapers and sites.

Through it all, Talking Biz News has covered the ups and downs, with:

1. 8,962 posts, or about 4.9 per day. Since daily blogging began on Jan. 1, 2006, the average is 5.4 posts per day.

2. 1,871 approved comments, or slightly more than one per day.

The months with the most posts were May 2007 (248) and June 2007 (259), primarily due to the coverage of News Corp.’s takeover of Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Marketwatch.com, Dow Jones Newswires and Barron’s. Both months saw an average of at least eight posts per day.

The post with the most comments — 59 — remains the one from 2006 reporting that CNBC anchor Ted David was moving to radio. David has a lot of fans.

The post with the most unique visitors is the one from May 2010 about Bloomberg editor in chief Matthew Winkler and his opinions about the quality of Twitter posts from his staffers. It has been read by more than 4,580 unique visitors.

Two posts — one in 2007 and another earlier this year — were removed because of inaccurate information involving the business journalists involved. Talking Biz News apologized in both cases.

The best month in terms of traffic was April 2010, which reported 42,527 unique visitors and 70,999 page views. That’s an average of more than 1,400 visitors per day and more than 2,350 page views per day.

Every month since October 2009 has seen an average of more than 1,000 unique visitors and an average of more than 1,475 page views per day.

“Job changes” and “The Wall Street Journal” are the two most popular subject topic categories, with each averaging almost one post per day in the past five years.

Talking Biz News received a “Best in Business” award in 2009 from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in the small blog competition. It has 425 fans on Facebook and more than 750 followers on Twitter.

Lastly, Talking Biz News is independent. It receives no advertising revenue (the ad revenue it previously generated was donated to SABEW) and is not used to advocate any personal beliefs. Its content is sometimes syndicated on Forbes.com, and its content is syndicated on newsonnews.net and beforeitsnews.com.

Thanks for reading.

TheStreet.com Names New CFO

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 03:22:31 +0000

Thomas Etergino has been named the new chief financial office at business news site TheStreet.com, according to an Associated Press story.

The story states, “Etergino, 43, was most recently chief financial officer and chief operating officer at privately held eMusic.com, an online music subscription service. Etergino steps into a position that has been vacant since May 2009.

“He was CFO of LSSi Corp., a privately held data services provider, and of AtriCure Inc., a medical devices company that went public during his tenure.

“Previously, Etergino served as a senior financial officer at the online digital advertising company DoubleClick Inc.”

Read more here.

TheStreet.com and PBS Nightly Business Report Strike Deal

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:40:37 +0000

TheStreet.com and PBS’ “Nightly Business Report” announced Monday an agreement for the financial news site’s writers to appear on the TV show’s programming.

“Word on TheStreet” will feature interviews with TheStreet experts that explore strategies that are easy enough for more novice investors to follow but with insight that even the most sophisticated market watchers will appreciate. Topics will include ETFs, mutual funds, small cap stocks, goal-oriented investing, life stage and life style investing, as well as market strategy and analysis related to hot topics as they emerge.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase our editorial talent on what is likely the most respected business show on TV,” said TheStreet CEO Daryl Otte in a statement. “Partnerships like this one affirm the highly-differentiated strengths of TheSteet’s editorial and will increasingly be part of our strategy to bring new traffic to our free site and subscribers to our paid services products.”

The interviews are hosted by “Nightly Business Report” anchor Tom Hudson. Word on TheStreet will run each Tuesday along with a package of related content on TheStreet.com

Read more here.

TheStreet.com Strikes Another Content Deal

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:38:07 +0000

Financial news site TheStreet.com, which on Monday announced a content-sharing arrangement with “Nightly Business Report” on PBS, has announced a second such deal on Tuesday. This one is with Newsweek.

The agreement calls for TheStreet and its sister Web site MainStreet to provide stories to Newsweek which will be posted on www.Newsweek.com with annotation and links back to TheStreet.com and MainStreet.com.

Newsweek will provide content to TheStreet for publication, annotation and links back to Newsweek.com and the print edition of the magazine will regularly feature content from TheStreet or MainStreet.

“Newsweek has long been considered one of the premier general interest newsweeklies in the world and as such their endorsement of our editorial content further validates the depth and strength of our distinct style of reporting — a focus on delivering breaking business news coupled with actionable ideas for investors and wealthy individuals,” said TheStreet.com CEO Daryl Otte in a statement.

Read more here.

How Dykstra used Cramer and TheStreet.com

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:34:22 +0000

Randall Lane, the former editor of Trader Monthly, writes about how former baseball player Lenny Dysktra used his friendship with TheStreet.com co-founder Jim Cramer to make it appear he was a stock-picking genius on the market news Web site and elsewhere.

Lane writes, “Cramer, I am sure, had no knowledge of Dykstra’s ‘pay to plug’ scheme — an arrangement that could well lead to a Securities & Exchange Commission investigation. He was just a dupe. But his relentless endorsements and promotion of the ballplayer’s stock-picking over the years must now surely rank as his most ill-conceived.

“Cramer’s effusive blessing, and the fact that his highly legitimate TheStreet.com tallied Dykstra’s impressive track record (as late as last year, Dykstra bragged on the site that he had picked 96 winners against only one loss) impressed everyone from CNBC to The New Yorker. It also, for a time, impressed me.

“I was running a company I had co-founded: Doubledown Media, which produced glossy magazines like Trader Monthly, Dealmaker, Private Air, and other titles for the rich and profligate.

“Lenny Dykstra called me in 2007 as randomly as he had called Cramer, and within 24 hours he hired me to produce The Players Club, a financial advice magazine for professional athletes. Dykstra introduced me to his athlete buddies, everyone from John McEnroe to Tim Brown to Keith Hernandez. But he was especially proud of his friendship with Cramer, a relationship he waved around like a magic cloak of legitimacy. He’d play me Cramer’s voicemail messages, or forward me their emails back-and-forth.”

Read more here.

TheStreet.com Insiders, Including Cramer, Buying Shares

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:22:42 +0000

Kathy Schwiff of Dow Jones Newswires reports last Thursday that insiders at online financial news site TheStreet.com have been purchasing its shares. Some on Wall Street believe that’s a sign the stock price will rise.

Schwiff writes, “Cramer supplied his viewers with a test case in the past month, spending $302,000 on 100,000 shares of TheStreet.com, the financial media company that he founded and chairs. Other insiders bought a total of 32,500 shares for $97,200 in the past six weeks.

“The recent purchases by Cramer, a former hedge-fund operator who hosts the CNBC program ‘Mad Money,’ brought his total direct and indirect holdings to 4.3 million shares, about 13.5% of the total, according to data provider The Washington Service. Those were his first purchases of the company’s shares in six years.

“Other buyers were TheStreet.com’s new chief executive, Daryl Otte, who bought 5,000 shares, and two directors, Martin Peretz and William Gruver, who bought a total of 27,500 shares.

“‘I think the prospects for the company are very good,’ said Peretz, editor-in-chief of the New Republic magazine and a director of TheStreet.com since it was founded in 1996.”

Read more here.

Biz Journalist Starts Investigative Site

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:13:26 +0000

Roddy Boyd, a former business reporter for The New York Post and Fortune magazine, has started his own site called The Financial Investigator.

Boyd said he seeks to fill the vacuum left by the “collapse in critical investigative reporting on the financial and operational prospects of publicly-traded corporations.”

On the site, Boyd writes, “The investigations are launched in an unscientific manner. If I think it is interesting, I’ll look into it and that’s that. More likely than not, I’ll drop it. I don’t have any criteria for investigation, other than a potential subject being A) Something that can be supported by a document, and B) Something that, information-wise, is not really “out there” in the market yet, but C) is important for investors to know.

“I have complete editorial control of this site. I have no partners, colleagues or advisers. No one sees or gets tipped to the stories prior to publication, save for a lawyer (if necessary.) I won’t take donations or advertising. I use GoDaddy’s web-hosting services and the template and software were all publicly available. Still, perhaps the sense of what FI.com is about is now more apparent: This is a modest operation. I bear the costs of running the site.

“I do not have any sort of investments in the securities of any company I write about, nor for that matter, in anything at all (save for my house.) My father manages a hedge fund. While I think the world of the guy, he has never yet helped me on a story nor have I asked him to. There is a reason for this. He trades some combination of convertible securities, Treasuries, futures, options et al., based primarily on his view of rates and volatility. Perhaps I should be even more direct: He doesn’t do fundamental long-short equity trading and after more than 40-years in the business, does not appear ready to start. In brief, none of what he or his colleagues do is conducive to helping me uncover the things I write about. I’m very happy to keep it that way.”

Read more here.

TheStreet.com Hires Chief Market Strategist as it Prepares New Products

Tue, 18 May 2010 00:56:53 +0000

Financial news site TheStreet.com announced Monday that it had hired Robert Walberg as the chief market strategist for its premium products and that Walberg will oversee the launch of some new products later this year.

The first new service to be rolled out will be called “Options Profits,” to launch later this spring. Walberg will also be a key external face of the company’s premium services division, presenting TheStreet.com’s views on the markets and highlighting the company’s best market calls throughout the media.

Subscription-based Premium Services represent approximately two-thirds of the company’s annual revenues.

Walberg was the founder and president of Chartwell Investment Group, a financial advisory company where he managed money and provided financial advice to a broad range of clients. Before founding Chartwell, he worked as a financial analyst and columnist for leading web destination, MSN Money. During this time, Walberg made regular appearances on CNBC’s Power Lunch segment and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

“TheStreet’s mix of insightful editorial and analytical tools position the Company as a unique resource to the investment community,” commented Walberg in a statement. “From the outside looking in, I have been impressed with the continued evolution of TheStreet into a premium destination site.”

Read more here.

Eppy Finalists Named in Biz News Categories

Mon, 17 May 2010 21:30:01 +0000

Editor & Publisher named the finalists for its 15th annual Eppy awards, including the finalists in its business categories.

The Eppy Awards will be presented at the conclusion of the 21st annual Editor & Publisher Interactive Media Conference & Trade Show June 16-17 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

The finalists in the best business blog category are BloggingStocks, AOL; FT Alphaville, Financial Times; Good Morning Silicon Valley, San Jose Mercury News, and The Conversation of HBR.org, Harvard Business Publishing.

The finalists for best business web site with less than than 1 million unique monthly visitors are CBS MoneyWatch.com, Chicagobusiness.com, Crain’s Chicago Business; IBJ.com, Indianapolis Business Journal; and Your Business on Kiplinger.com.

The finalists for best business web site with more than 1 million unique monthly visitors are CNNMoney.com, FT.com, Financial Times; MarketWatch.com; and USA Today’s “Money” Section.

In addition, CBS MoneyWatch.com is a finalist in the best designed site with less than 1 million unique monthly visitors category. And DailyFinance.com was nominated for best design of a web site with over 1 million unique monthly visitors.

See all of the finalists here.

Marketwatch.com Launches New Newsletter

Thu, 13 May 2010 22:15:51 +0000

Marketwatch.com has launched a new newsletter targeting investors to be written by Mark Hulbert called “Hulbert on Markets: What’s Working Now.”

The weekly newsletter, which will be sold for $99 a year for introductory subscribers but will later sell for $149, focuses on stocks, mutual funds, and market timing recommendations that are most popular among top performing advisers. Hulbert, a senior columnist at Marketwatch.com, will highlight consensus recommendations from top performing advisers in each issue and provide commentary.

“We have bolstered MarketWatch’s lineup of premium product offerings and continue to add new content and features that attract and engage our audience of active investors,” said David Callaway, editor-in-chief of MarketWatch.com, in a statement. ”Investors need to stay on top of what’s happening and what it means for them, and we believe these recent additions will serve them well.”

Marketwatch.com, a Dow Jones & Co. property, has nine other subscription-based newsletters.

Hulbert is a senior columnist for MarketWatch.com and the editor of the Hulbert Financial Digest (HFD), which since 1980 has been tracking the performance of investment advisory newsletters. The HFD became a service of MarketWatch.com in April 2002. Hulbert also writes a regular investment column, On the Markets, three times a week for MarketWatch.com.

New Columnist at Marketwatch.com

Wed, 12 May 2010 02:33:08 +0000

Jon Markman, who recently had been writing a column for MSN Money, will now write a weekly column for Marketwatch.com on the global equity and credit markets.

“Speculation is one of the most important but misunderstood forces in capital markets,” said Markman in a statement. “My column will explain who is taking the biggest risks to create value, who is betting against them, and how private investors can participate intelligently in the contest.”

Markman previously served as a managing editor and columnist at CNBC on MSN Money from 1997 to 2002, and as an editor, investments columnist and investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times from 1984 to 1997. He was portfolio manager and senior investment strategist for a quantitative hedge fund from 2002 to 2005.

In addition to Markman’s “Speculations” column, MarketWatch.com recently debuted several new columns highlighting news and analysis on a range of topics including:

This Week in Latin America – A weekly column by former MarketWatch journalist and investment author Mike Molinski, focusing on investment opportunities in Latin America;
Forex Files – A weekly currency column by MarketWatch’s European political and economic correspondent Bill Watts, in London;
Market Medic – A three times a week column by MarketWatch senior markets correspondent Nick Godt, in New York;
Fund Mastery – A new blog by Kurt Brouwer, a San Francisco-based mutual fund advisor;
Market Junkie – A new blog by the MarketWatch markets team with market-moving news and speculations around the clock;
Your Portfolio – A new column by MarketWatch retirement columnist Bob Powell in Boston, focusing on ways to structure your portfolio to handle different periods of your life, from college savings to retirement.

Read more here.

TheStreet.com Responds Strongly to Libel Lawsuit from Generex

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:58:48 +0000

Felix Salmon of Reuters likes how TheStreet.com and senior columnist Adam Feuerstein responded to being hit with a $250 million libel lawsuit by Canadian company Generex.

Salmon writes, “The story begins on March 19, when Feuerstein wrote a ‘Biotech Stock Mailbag’ column in which he explains why Generex ‘is a total bust.’ Generex wasn’t happy about that, and they were even less happy about his March 26 follow-up, where he goes into a lot more detail about why he thinks Generex’s product is never going to get approval in the US. But there’s no libel here, Generex’s desperate attempts to find some notwithstanding:

The March 26 Article actually states a false legal conclusion that Generex has committed securities fraud under the Federal Securities Laws, when Feuerstein states ‘Yet even here, Generex plays stupid games aimed at misleading investors, something that totally undermines the legitimacy of the study.’ Using the word ‘misleading’ is not an opinion in this context but a conclusion that an SEC standard of fraud has been violated.

“I love the word ‘actually’ there — it’s as if Generex can invent a libel out of whole cloth just by asserting it to ‘actually’ exist. Stating in an opinion column that a company is playing stupid games aimed at misleading investors is something that columnists do all the time. It’s not stating ‘a false legal conclusion.’

“In any case, Feuerstein and TheStreet.com responded to the lawsuit in the best possible way — not by writing about it at all, but by publishing yet another column on Generex, this time detailing the way in which India revoked its approval of Generex’s product, without the revocation showing up anywhere in Generex’s SEC filings. It’s good, smart, hard-hitting reporting, and they should be applauded for not being cowed by this silly suit. Meanwhile, any investors still left in Generex might wonder why it’s pursuing expensive libel suits instead of engaging in a public and open way with its critics. It certainly doesn’t make the company look very good at all.”

Read more here.

TV Journalist Accused of Leaking Documents to CNET Reporter

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:27:59 +0000

A Los Angeles broadcast journalist has been accused of giving confidential court documents in a case involving pirated video on YouTube to CNET reporter Greg Sandoval.

Caroline McCarthy of CNET reports, “Schapiro, an external counsel for YouTube and its parent company Google, ran through a list of telephone calls and e-mails from last fall that he says provide evidence of communication with Sandoval. When Tur finally turned over his computer to a forensics team, Schapiro said, its hard drive had been wiped clean in a 7-pass wipe, an action that Tur said was unrelated as the computer was having its system restored so that it could be given to his daughter.

“‘If all of these things are coincidence, then Bob Tur is the unluckiest man in the world,’ Schapiro related to Judge Louis Stanton. ‘The circumstantial evidence in this case and the inferences to be drawn from it are overwhelming.’

“Stanton said that he would like to see the fresh dispute go in front of a jury as a separate trial, which he expects will be resolved in a ’short and simple’ manner, but that ‘it’s got to be dealt with.’”

Read more here.

EveryBlock Launches Microlocal Service in Portland

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:04:27 +0000

EveryBlock, a site that has pioneered the local news space, today rolled out its microlocal site in Portland, Oregon. EveryBlock will soon offer news feeds down to the neighborhood block level, which will allow people to track news and information about what’s happening in their neighborhoods in Portland.

The city of Portland's Bureau of Technology Services has launched an Open Data Initiative to promote increased transparency and openness in government. EveryBlock has worked with city agencies in Portland for several weeks to collect, analyze and organize data in a meaningful and useful way for consumers. This was in response to demand for EveryBlock from those who live and work in Portland and the city’s release of raw data. The city of Portland recently announced its CivicApps Challenge (http://www.civicapps.org/). The datasets released by the city provide a strong base for EveryBlock Portland.

“People who live and work in Portland said they wanted EveryBlock in their city, and we're thrilled to launch here,” said Adrian Holovaty, general manager of EveryBlock. “The beauty of EveryBlock is that residents can get a lot of frequently updated information about their neighborhoods – all in one place.”

“Portland is a great example of a city government opening up data that allows developers to display it in ways that make sense to residents,” said Dan O’Neil, manager of business development for EveryBlock. “We can help local governments plan initiatives and open the data for all to use, and we have the ability to quickly launch robust news sites anywhere open data standards exist.”

EveryBlock’s “Notify Your Neighbors” feature allows the people of Portland to comment and post announcements about their neighborhoods. Residents can share an eyewitness news report, start a discussion about a neighborhood-focused issue or let neighbors know about a missing pet or garage sale. As soon as the announcement is posted, it gets published to nearby EveryBlock users, who can then post comments or ask additional questions.

EveryBlock is available in 16 cities: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Users can visit www.everyblock.com or download the free iPhone app (http://www.everyblock.com/about/iphone/) to join the discussion of what's happening in their neighborhoods.