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[Back to Online Journalism Awards] Christian
Science Monitor Online
news leads a precarious life By
Kim Campbell When
it comes to the Internet, if it's election news you want, there's plenty
of it - but don't get too attached to any quirky news sites unless they
have deep pockets. While
some online outlets are reveling in all-time high traffic, nervous investors
are pulling away from others, even as they receive critical praise. This
has left journalists looking for jobs and Internet users deleting bookmarks.
"In
this dotcom environment, it's hard to tell where we'll be in 60 days,"
says Hoag Levins, executive editor of crime site APBnews.com, which watched
its funds dry up earlier this year and laid off dozens of staffers before
finding a new owner. Sites
like APBnews, Salon, and Thestreet have all had problems this year - which
some industry-watchers attribute to trying to do too much too fast, and
to the elusive formula for bringing advertisers and Web surfers together.
But
even as sites are downsizing and disappearing, others are cropping up,
suggesting that what is happening may be as much natural media turnover
as it is Wall Street misgivings. "To
some extent what we're seeing is not just retrenchment, it's churn,"
says Janice Castro, a veteran of media Web sites and now an assistant
professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Indeed,
many in the online news industry are optimistic about its prospects. "For
those of us who can claim financial security, the climate has never been
better," says Merrill Brown, editor of MSNBC.com, which along with
Slate.com is backed by Microsoft. Thanks
to the never-ending election, news sites MSNBC.com and CNN.com had record
traffic in November, according to Web-site tracker Media Metrics. Major
events, like the death of JFK Jr. or the Monica Lewinsky debacle, bring
new Web users on board and keep them coming back, Web sites say. In
2000, about 1 in 5 Americans went online for news about the election,
according to a study released this month by the Pew Internet Project.
In 1996, only 4 percent of people got their election news off the Internet.
Mr.
Brown points out that the Internet has allowed news media into a place
it wasn't before - the workplace - even though online media are still
trying to make inroads into households. "The
eyeballs are there, they just haven't found a way to translate that into
something advertisers are willing to buy into," says Sreenath Sreenivasan,
an associate professor at Columbia's graduate school of journalism, and
the administrator of this month's first ever Online Journalism Awards.
Ironically,
that ceremony highlighted some of the industry's problems, as several
winners were products of struggling Web sites. APBnews and Salon were
winners (see list, right), as was writer Emily Prager, whose column was
cancelled after eight months when Oxygen.com let her and other freelancers
go. Ms.
Prager is enthusiastic about writing for the Internet, but says the temporary
nature of the jobs takes some getting used to. "[You think] 'Wait
a minute, I did a great job, why am I not working?' But that's the way
of the Web." Mr.
Levins of APBnews says his site's critical praise and ability to go from
0 to 24 million page views per month in its first year and a half is significant,
although traffic has dropped by half since March. "We
proved hard journalism really worked and really is able to pull in a large
audience. The problem was, we couldn't figure out how to sell that audience
to advertisers who are still looking for household access," he says.
While
sites sort out the advertising problem, they are trying other ways to
bring in money, from charging customers to syndicating original material.
"It's
a very exciting time to be involved with the Web," says Ms. Castro,
calling digital information delivery a startupindustry, "but there
are going to be some adjustments and bumps along the way." o o o o o This
month, the first ever Online Journalism Awards were presented by the Online
News Association and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New
York. The winners in each category are listed below. General
Excellence in Online Journalism: Original to the Web General
Excellence in Online Journalism: In Collaboration Breaking
News: Original to the Web Breaking
News: Collaboration Service
Journalism: Original to the Web Service
Journalism: In Collaboration Enterprise
Journalism: Original to the Web Enterprise
Journalism: In Collaboration. Creative
Use of the Medium: Original Creative
Use of the Medium: In Collaboration Online
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Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society o o o o o [Back to Online Journalism Awards] |