The Wall Street Journal
“Unfriended: The Facebook IPO Debacle” a nearly 10-minute-long video directed by indie filmmaker Naftali Beane Rutter, “marks the beginning of an effort to produce longer, more in-depth videos” at The Wall Street Journal, writes Journal deputy managing editor Alan Murray in a memo to staff. The video, set to frenetic, brassy music (some of which was also composed by Naftali Beane Rutter), tells the story of Facebook’s star-crossed initial public offering through interviews with WSJ staffers like Francesco Guerrera and Chris Ling, a retail investor whose account was zeroed out after his order for Facebook stock got botched.
The Journal is expanding its video offerings, Murray writes, including a weekly political show, and its WSJ Live service is coming to Xbox. Last September, analyst Ken Doctor wrote about WSJ Live, a high-CPM, “internal aggregation,” free product. “If you run a broadcast company, WSJ Live should send a chill down your spine,” Doctor wrote. “How did these print guys do moving pictures better than us?”
The New York Times, another newspaper serving New York City, recently placed its videos on Hulu, a potential second home for its long-form videos. And the Huffington Post is planning a live-streaming television network, HuffPost Live, which will reportedly launch in July. Murray’s memo and the Facebook video appear after the jump.
All —
Please take a look at the excellent Facebook video — “Unfriended: The Facebook IPO Debacle” – on the website today. This video marks the beginning of an effort to produce longer, more in-depth videos, that reflect are very best of WSJ journalism.
The last few months have seen a rapid expansion of the reach of our video. In May, we had 19.7 million video streams — close to three times what were getting at the first of the year. That reflects the expansion of our “WSJ Live” service to new platforms — the WSJ Live iPad app, Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart Tv, etc. – as well as some new programming, in particular the successful launch of live shows from both London and Hong Kong.
There’s much more to come. This week, we will be launching a weekly political show out of Washington. In the coming days, WSJ Live will be offered on the Xbox. And before the end of the summer, we will launch a video blog that will provide a venue for all our reporters equipped with iPhones to make regular contributions to video.
Many thanks for your help in these efforts. WSJ video is built on the work of our great journalists around the world; we need you to succeed!
Alan
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