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Web scribes: Enter National Journalism Awards

Jay Small — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 20:56:09 +0000

The Scripps Howard Foundation, affiliated with the company that gives me my day job, once again seeks entries for its National Journalism Awards. The program includes a Web Reporting category. Enter before Jan. 31 and maybe you'll get to bask in the glory. Details from the announcement:

Since 1953 the Scripps Howard Foundation has honored the best work in journalism through its National Journalism Awards program. The awards honor excellence in 17 categories, including one that you will find of interest. The Web Reporting Award carries a cash prize of $10,000. The postmark deadline is Jan. 31; winners will be announced March 7 and honored at an awards presentation April 18 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Here are details:

The Web Reporting Award honors the news organization that demonstrates the best use of new media technologies and innovative techniques to report on a news story or news event while maintaining the highest journalistic standards.

Open to any news organization whose primary function is the gathering and disseminating of news information to the general public. The news story or event must have been originally published online in 2007. Also open to organizations that combine their traditional field with new media efforts or organizations that focus solely on online formats. No college news organization work is eligible.

Entries must provide a URL or URLs for judges to view the news story or event. Entry must include a written narrative describing the organization’s efforts, a description of the news story or event and its components, original date published online, as well as justification of why the entry should be presented an award. $50 entry fee. Prize is $10,000 and a trophy.

Entry form. Questions: Sue Porter at 513-977-3030.

Good luck, entrants!

Olympian video effort for '08

Jay Small — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:22:07 +0000

Cory Bergman notes NBC Universal's planned endurance run to cover the 2008 Olympics, including 2,200 hours of streamed video and 6,600 hours of coverage available in archive:

It goes without saying that such blanket online coverage raises some interesting issues/questions at the affiliate level, but kudos to NBCU for blowing it out online.

Yep. One way I look at this: NBCU finally squeezes out all the return on investment it can from all the staffing, equipment, bandwidth, travel and planning it takes to prepare for Olympics coverage.

It reminds me of when local supermarkets first started shifting to "open 24 hours" schedules. One major reason for that was just common sense: they had to pay to leave all the refrigerator and freezer cases running constantly, and kept store staff on site overnight to restock, accept shipments, manage inventory etc. They might as well collect some purchase revenue from second-shifters and night owls while all that energy was expended.

NBCU would have thousands of hours of unused video assets, as in Olympics past, if not for the ability to stream or serve them online. Even if online advertising per-unit revenues are dimes vs. dollars for broadcast, any grocer would tell you: a dime in the cash register is better than nothing if it compensates for work you have to do either way.

How to write for e-commerce

Jay Small — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:33:34 +0000

Those of us with long backgrounds running content-oriented sites may think we can write copy to sell products and services online. Maybe some of us can. But we should begin by reading Shannon Watters' tutorial over at Vitamin: Copywriting for eCommerce.

Key excerpt:

Decide who you are. Do you want to be considered glamorous? Hip? Maternal? Consider the Mac vs. PC ads that have been wildly successful for Apple over the last couple of years. In just a few seconds, the commercials immediately establish that Apple products are intuitive, user-friendly, and cool. They appeal to a certain audience in a unique way, and immediately set themselves apart from every other computer company on the market.