FinancialMedia.org

Kiplinger Plans to Offer Personal Finance Tips on Video

Personal finance publisher Kiplinger is planning to develop 25-second video segments that can be scheduled into finance shows or sporting events.  The vignettes will provide advertisers with the opportunity to sponsor personal finance tips.  The vignettes can also be distributed on the Internet.

Financial Journalists Tap Online Resources

Sunlight Foundation has teamed up with Associated Press Managing Editors to provide three free webinars for journalists reporting on the current financial crisis and helping them uncover relationships between local Congress members and the major financial institutions.  The workshops will be led by Bill Allison, senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, and include training on the use of freely available web sites like OpenSecrets.org and GovTrack.us.  The webinar will be held on October 23, 24 and 27.

The Wall Street Journal Digital Network Reports Surge in Traffic

The Wall Street Journal Online has reported a 137% year-to-year leap in visitors to its website while subscriptions rose from 989,000 to 1,063,000, up 7.4% over the past year. In September 2008, the Wall Street Journal Digital Network, which is comprised of WSJ.com, MarketWatch.com, Barron's.com and AllThingsD.com, posted year-over-year growth of 132% in visitors and 70% in page views.

Forbes.com Launches Intelligent Investing Section

Forbes.com, home page for the world's business leaders, has launched Intelligent Investing, a new section of the site that provides groundbreaking analysis and insight about the current economic and business climate.  Each day, members of the All-Star Forbes Investor Team participate in panel discussions about markets and the economy.  Each week, Steve Forbes will interview the best minds in business.  The new section is sponsored by Zurich Financial Services.

Business and Finance Websites Report Spike in September Traffic

The financial crisis has triggered a surge in traffic to business and finance news and research websites.  According to the latest comScore report, such sites attracted 64 million visitors in September, up 9% from August.   Page views increased by 16% while total time spent leaped 29%.  Yahoo! Finance topped the category with nearly 20 million visitors, a 30% jump versus the previous month.  Traffic to Russian financial site RBC.RU soared 155% to 1.2 million visitors.  FoxBusiness.com drew 1.2 million visitors, up 127% while Google Finance captured 1.4 million visitors, up 67%.

SmartMoney Launches Upgraded Website with New Content

SmartMoney has unveiled a new website with an improved presentation of breaking stories as well as an upgraded set of portfolio tools.   New editorial content include investing columns and videos about the trading day's top stock picks, tax advice, small business tips, and a Financial Crisis Answer Center.

Forbes.com Launches Financial Advisor Section

Forbes.com has launched a new content section within its personal finance channel that targets financial advisors and wealthy investors.  Sponsored by Prudential, the section features news, commentary and a directory of top financial advisors across various industries as well as educational content from Forbes.com-owned Investopedia.com.

Rumor on CNN's iReport Triggers Sell-off of Apple Shares

A report posted on CNN's iReport that claimed Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack was quickly removed, but not before the rumor sent shares of Apple tumbling to a 17-month low of $94.65.  Investors had been worrying about the health of the CEO of Apple.  Industry observers expect this incident to derail the growth of citizen journalism at least in the business world.

Forbes.com Guarantees Online Ad Results

Forbes.com has expanded its ad guarantee program to include more metrics for advertisers that spend at least $1 million over 90 days.   The new Total Guarantee Initiative will specify the number of people reached and the number of messages placed as audited by third party firms such as Ernst and Young.  Forbes.com says that the website draws a highly affluent audience numbering 20 million unique visitors a month, but ComScore places the number of visitors at less than 6 million for the month of August.

TheStreet.com Launches Blackberry Mobile Application

TheStreet.com has launched a mobile application for BlackBerry smartphone users.  Developed by Polar Mobile, the application provides users with up-to-the-minute market updates, a personalized watchlist of stocks, business news, and reports from Jim Cramer.  It can be downloaded for free at http://m.thestreet.com.