FinancialMedia.org

Dow Jones Sues Briefing.com for Content Theft

 Dow Jones & Company has filed a suit to stop Briefing.com from misappropriating headlines and articles from Dow Jones Newswires.  Briefing.com allegedly "cut and pasted" substantial parts of articles and reprinted headlines within three minutes of their initial publication on Dow Jones Newswires.  Briefing.com sells live market analysis as a subscription service.  A free version of Briefing.com is available on Yahoo Finance.

Zacks Investment Research Partners with SkyGrid for Real-Time Financial News

Zacks Investment Research has selected SkyGrid as a provider of financial news to give its user access to a real-time news offering.  Zacks provides analyst coverage of publicly-traded companies, publishes newsletters and provides financial content to websites.  TechCrunch cited this latest development as evidence of SkyGrid's growing "real-time financial news empire."

BNK Invest Launches Business Video Website

BNK Invest has launched MarketNewsVideo.com which will produce and distribute free online video about the stock markets, the economy and publicly-traded companies.  The website will let subscribers sign up to alerts by company.  The content will also be made available to other websites which can embed videos by company or industry.

Minyanville Gets More Fun and Informative

Minyanville has re-designed its website and launched a social networking forum for investors and financial professionals.  Featuring animated anchors Hoofy the Bull and Boo the Bear, the website's Emmy Award-winning show offers a review of market trends, business headlines and current issues.  The website also offer MinyanLand, a destination for kids to learn about money, saving and investing.

WSJ.com Expands Asian and European Coverage

The Wall Street Journal has added new sections to its website dedicated to news about Asia and Europe and featuring video, regional market data and lifestyle content.  The website has also launched a regional home page to cover India.  Apparently, WSJ is able to output more content even after cutting two dozen newsroom jobs.

Lemonade Makers Track the Recession

Recently laid-off Laura Rich and Sara Clemence have teamed up with freelance writer Lynn Parramore to chronicle the recession.  Presented as a blog, RecessionWire links to articles about the recession, job cuts and the financial crisis, and more recently, the economic stimulus package.  In the photograph on this webpage, the trio certainly appear confident about their future.

Forbes.com Continues to Grow at a Slower Pace

Forbes.com has announced that its website logged nearly 20 million unique visitors in December 2008.  The 3% month-to-month increase appeared very modest in light of the financial media industry's coverage of the financial crisis and the economic turmoil.  Still, overall traffic number rose 22% from the 3rd quarter to the 4th quarter of 2008.

BreakingViews.com Partners with New York Times and International Herald Tribune

The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune have entered into a content distribution partnership with Breakingviews.com, a financial news site with 25 correspondents and columnists based in London, New York, Paris, Washington and Madrid.  A column from Breakingviews.com will appear in both the print and online editions of the newspapers.

Corporate Blogs vs Press Releases: It's All About Reg FD

Reuters' Robert MacMillan has written an article analyzing the press release industry's reaction to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission decision to consider corporate blogs as a primary mechanism for the disclosure of public company information.  The press release industry currently helps public companies meet Reg FD (Regulation Fair Disclosure) by ensuring wide and timely distribution of public company information when disclosed.  The article discusses the opportunity for blog aggregators to parse the blogs and organize the information.  However, we believe that it is more likely that the SEC will issue guidelines for public companies to follow in order to meet Reg FD.

Bloomberg Sets Up Multimedia Division

Financial news and data company Bloomberg LP has announced a plan to separate its Internet, television and radio news services from its text news service to create a new multimedia division.  Matt Winkler will remain in charge of the text news business.   To seed new business ideas, the company will also set up a new subsidiary, Bloomberg Ventures, under the guidance of Bloomberg LP's one-time chief executive and current head of sales, Lex Fenwick.