J.co.uk ain’t in the old boys’ financial club just yet

Journalism.co.uk got a long chat with the FT’s Rob Grimshaw last week, as reported over on the main news channel. He’s been ever so busy talking to lots of media reporters about FT.com’s new, and exclusive, Long Room facility.

Sadly, Journalism.co.uk can’t report back on the exact nature of the Long Room … we did try and sneak in this morning but this has just pinged back:

“Thank you for your application to join FT Alphaville’s Long Room. We regret to inform you that your application has been unsuccessful, as you don’t appear to meet our strict criteria for membership.”

We’re told we can try again if our situation changes. Ho hum. Looks like we’ll be gazing in the windows of the old boys’ club for a while, from the cold and snowy outside. We’d chosen a little profile cartoon and everything.

We did know we weren’t exactly qualified, but our multimedia curiousity got the better of us. To be fair, we probably have don’t have much to take to the online financial ‘table’.

We’ll just have to make do with Markets Live for now.

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Financial round-up: FT Alphaville on Facebook; headlinemoney.co.uk expands

The Financial Times’ Alphaville blog is hosting a Q&A session on the world’s credit markets through it’s Facebook group.

Tomorrow between 3-4pm BST (10-11am EST and 7-8am PST) journalists Sam Jones and Stacy-Marie Ishmael issue will be answering questions from users live.

Meanwhile headlinemoney.co.uk, a financial news site, is expanding its free services to general news reporters as they are ‘increasingly covering money-related stories’, a press release from the site says.

Journalists can sign up for special guest passes to the site, which offers a case study request facility, a financial release news wire, background information on financial instutions, and a directory of financial journalists for editors looking to make commissions.

The offer is very much a way to meet the demands of the current economic situation, a spokeswoman for the site told us:

“With no obvious end in sight to the global financial crisis, we are happy to extend the offer for at least a month, or until the end of the year, if the demand for our resource remains high amongst non-financial journalists.

“On the duration front, again, it’s a case of regularly monitoring the situation. Once use of the headlinemoney site by a generalist reporter begins to fall away, then we will be inclined to think it’s a case of job done and will probably switch off access privileges. Those with guest passes can always reapply further down the line if the need should arise again.”

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SIIA: Blogs are ‘print journalism pornography’, says Andrew Neil

The need for editors is greater now in the online age than ever, according to BBC broadcaster and all-round media mogul Andrew Neil.

Speaking at the SIIA Global Information Industry Summit, Neil said the internet had created a world in which the reader is ‘information rich, but quality poor’.

“What we need are trusted gatekeepers to decide what is accurate and what isn’t,” he said, adding that news requires ‘a good old-fashioned editorial process’ and a ‘trusted brand name’.

But this process cannot be replaced by blogs: “I will still enjoy them [blogs] as a form of entertainment or print journalism pornography.”

Neil went on to praise The Spectator’s online offering Coffee House, forgetting to mention that it’s billed as a blog:

Discussing Coffee House, Neil claimed the site attracts 200,000 unique users and 2 million page impressions a month. The site will soon account for 20 per cent of the Spectator’s ‘bottom line’, he added.

Blogs also came under scrutiny from Hugo Dixon, editor-in-chief of BreakingViews.com, who said that in terms of financial news trusted media brands are demanded by readers.

“There are some good things on blogs, but they don’t have the brand consistency of media brands. Brand matters, because financial professionals do not have the time to hunt: they need to no where someone’s coming from, the ethical basis, and does it have good access [to news and information]. I think very few blogs have good access.”

Dixon made a convincing case for the need for quality journalism online and how this can drive subscription-based revenue models and help editorial staff gain access to subjects and clients.

One of the blogs sporting ‘good things’ must be FT’s Alphaville - a site Dixon praised (though he never called it a blog) throughout the opening of his keynote speech, and which won a Webby award this year for the best business blog…

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MediaGuardian: FT.com stalls after theft of computer equipment

The Financial Times’ news team was unable to update its website for several hours this morning after thieves stole computer equipment from Cable & Wireless’ data centre at Watford.

The site’s Alphaville blogged ran live updates on the situation and published stories while the main site was out of action.

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NYTimes.com and BBC scoop prizes at Webby awards

The New York Times website won two awards for best news and newspaper at last night’s Webby awards.

BBC News also picked up an accolade for news, while its world service website won an award for radio.

The Financial Times blog Alphaville was also named best business blog.

Winners at the Webbys were asked to make a five-word acceptance speech - the full list of which can be read on the awards website.

Here’s a selection:

“No longer a newspaper site.” (NYTimes.com)

“Me, me, me, me, me!!!” (comedian Stephen Colbert named person of the year)

“Not bad for an aethiest [sic].” (Speaking of Faith, winner in the religion and spirituality category)

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Webby success for FT.com and BBC News

The Financial Times and the BBC have reason to celebrate after they both won Webby Awards - considered by many as the Oscars of online publishing.

With nominations in over 70 categories FT.com’s Alphaville blog and the BBC News site were amongst a crowded field of winners as they picked up gongs earlier this week.

The Webbys are selected by a group made up of web, business and celebrity figures selected by the awarding body, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, with the people’s voice awards voted on by web-using members of the public.

Alphaville won the best business blog category, also picking up the people’s voice award in that category.

BBC News was the people’s voice winner in the news category (it also won the main award in the radio category) with the main prize going to NYTimes.com - one of a total of six awards for the publication.

Two of those successes came in the online newspaper section where NYTimes.com won both the main award and the people’s voice award, in the process beating of competition from Guardian.co.uk, Independent.co.uk, the Wall Street Journal Online and Variety.com.

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Press Gazette: FT Alphaville wins digital journalism award

The FT’s Alphaville blog has become the first recipient of the Harold Wincott Award for online financial journalism.

The annual ceremony recognises the best in financial journalism and inaugurate its prize for online journalism this year.

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