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Exploring the Web as a New Medium of Communication
Financial News on the Web
By Debbie Weil
Sept 96, No. 2
ONLINE BUSINESS SECTIONS
If you ask
David Ignatius, The Washington Post’s business
editor, what’s special about WashingtonPost.com’s
business section, he’s got a ready answer: "We
think we’ve created an electronic product that
gives business readers an extra dimension, an element
of interactivity." He points in particular to Jim
Glassman, whom he dubs the site’s "anchor
personality."
"An anchor personality is part of what will make online
journalism go," Ignatius said in a recent interview,
comparing online journalism to the broadcast medium.
"We think Jim Glassman is the best investment columnist
in the country." Glassman, the former editor of Roll
Call, is a respected Washington journalist who
writes about complex issues with a distinctive, clear
voice. He’s generally regarded as a very smart
guy. "We’ve created a special site for him,"
said Ignatius, where readers can ask questions and
engage in ongoing dialogue.
Another popular feature of the Post’s online
Business section is The
Post 200, a searchable database of facts and figures
covering metropolitan Washington’s top 200 companies.
There is also a Business
Glossary ("New and Improved," according to the
site) which Ignatius calls "a marvelous thing... The
vertical dimension of the online medium enables us
to define complicated financial terms for our readers
with the click of a mouse."
Lawrence Roberts, content developer for WashingtonPost.com’s
Business
pages, says he gave much thought to "what the basic
things an investor would look for in an online newspaper
site." His goal was twofold, he said in an interview.
He wanted to make the Post’s online Business
section "a one-stop shopping place." Secondly, he
wanted the online section to be a serious competitor
with the other three national sources of online financial
news: CNNfn, The
New York Times, and The
Wall Street Journal.
To that end, Roberts identified four major areas of
interest to online investors:
* current quotes on stocks & mutual funds
* access to basic information on any company that’s
in
the news or that an investor might be considering
* personal finance & investing advice
* tips on how to manage money (saving for college,
401(k)’s, etc.)
The actual sub-sections of the Online Post Business
section cover these four areas, but with different
names. For example, information on companies includes
both the Post’s Top 200 as well as the database
from Hoover’s Online, with which the Post has
partnered. Jim Glassman’s columns from the print
Post are incuded in the personal finance section,
along with the interactive message board that Glassman
moderates.
The result, asserts Roberts, is "a site with value
and wisdom. I think we’ve got the most complete
online business section that you don’t have to
pay for."
OTHER
FINANCIAL WEB SITES?
But there
are, in fact, dozens of sites on the Web that dispense
free financial information. Whether or not they have
the "value-added" component of an online newspaper’s
business section is a question that webheads can debate.
Personally, I’ll cast my vote for the judgment
and editing imposed on online newspaper sites by old-fashioned
print journalists.
Jayne Lytel, former editor of The Internet Letter
(sold to Phillips Publishing), and currently new media
editor of Institutional Investor, the financial publishing
company with the eponymous flagship magazine, agrees
that there is "a growing amount of financial information
on the Web." But, she points out, it is generally
targeted at "individual customers."
"For corporate news about mergers and acquisitions,
etc., paper newspapers are still the place to go,"
Lytel said in an interview.
In addition, there are the specialized forums on America
Online and CompuServe,
as well as the newsgroups where much chatting goes
on about stock prices, brokerage fees and the like.
These tend to be moderated by non-experts, however,
and depending on your comfort level with the credibility
of your sources, they may be of questionable value
to investors with little time to spend online.
(The playing out of the Iomega stock saga on AOL’s
Motley Fool forum is the subject of a column unto
itself.)
Institutional Investor does not yet have a Web site.
(Lytel sighs.) But as product development editor,
she has just launched the company’s first "wired"
publication - an email-based, subscription-only newsletter
called Financial Net News. The weekly update is available
as a two-fer: it’s delivered both in print and
by email, for an annual cost of $1,395. (For more
information: jayne@lytel.com).
Lytel offers up four financial Web sites she consults
frequently: Web Finance, Corporate
Finance Network, StreetEYE
Index and the Electronic Banking Resource Center.
FEEDBACK
ON _WIRED WOMEN_
I did, in
fact, get some feedback to my last column on the subject
of "Wired Women." One response was a vitriolic attack
on my lackluster promotion of the "feminist" cause.
I.e. the writer inferred from my column that I’m
not really a "feminist." Since that was not the subject
of the column (nor did I discuss my personal "self-identity"),
I’ll move on to several other interesting replies.
Writes Wendy McLelland, "Women are getting onto the
’net in droves, but IMHO (they) feel intimidated
by what seems to be a male-dominated industry. I try
to encourage my clients - small business owners (male
& female) - that this ’brave new world’
is full of potential for all, including women." McLelland
operates the Biz
Resource Site.
Another reply came from Jessica LeBeau, advertising
director at a corporate headquarters in Dallas, Tx.
She reacted to Rosalind Resnick’s comment that
in an ideal world we wouldn’t need "women’s
groups to compensate for women’s lack of self-confidence."
"Though I have never joined (a women’s group),"
writes LeBeau, "I feel that perhaps they were organized
so that women could vent their frustrations regarding
a male-dominated society..." She goes on to give a
specific example of unfair and demeaning treatment
in a professional situation (not her current position,
she emphasizes.)
Hmm, are all you editors & publishers out there listening?
Yes, I know it’s 1996, but things really haven’t
changed all that much. I’ll never forget what
an editor said to me almost 20 years ago when I was
interviewing for a staff position on The Atlanta Constitution.
I had just gotten my masters degree in journalism
and was passionate to get a job as a real reporter.
"But you’re married and your husband is a doctor
(he was in medical training at the time)," said the
editor in question. Pause... "Why would you want to
work?"
OK, enough Oprah for this column.
GOT
A TIP?
Do you have
specific ideas on how and why the Web is developing
as a new medium of mass communication - a Fifth Estate,
if you will? A fundamental question to ponder: Do
you see the Web as an adjunct or ultimately as a replacement
for traditional print media? Let me know what you
think.
Seeya
Debbie Weil is president of Wordbiz.Net, a Web site consulting
firm specializing in the design and organization of content.
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