Being a journalist can bring lots of perks, from access to high-ranking officials to invitations to swank parties and events.
Unless you’re a writer for a Web site.
That was the aggravating situation for many dot-com reporters at last week’s Grammy Awards, which for the first time did not give out media credentials to Internet reporters. The snub came even as the number of Web sites offering news grows exponentially.
During the awards show, Web reporters had to improvise from their desks or find ways around the rules.
Launch.com discovered one of those ways. The Santa Monica-based company runs a music-oriented Web site, and wanted to get its reporters into the show. Because they couldn’t get credentials, Launch relied on one of its secondary businesses it runs a news service for radio stations.
“We were credentialed under Launch Radio Network,” said Craig Rosen, vice president of programming. “There’s other dot-coms that have figured a way around it.”
At music site AllStar, a division of CDnow, Managing Editor Carrie Borzillo has been covering the Grammys ever since the site’s inception in 1996.
“I do understand that there has to be a cutoff, but when AllStar’s been covering it for three years straight, I was surprised (when our credentials were denied),” Borzillo said. “I think everyone worked around it as best we could.”
AllStar hired two reporters and a photographer who were credentialed with other media outlets to do freelance work for the site.
“Because there’s such a proliferation of these kinds of companies vs. the number of substantive mainstream media, we couldn’t accommodate everybody,” said Adam Sandler, spokesman for NARAS. He added that all online companies were given the option to access images from an official Webcast run by the Academy’s site, Grammy.com.
Executives at dot-coms have two explanations for their exclusion this year: There is no reliable measurement system for determining which sites are more powerful and important than others, and organizations connected to the Grammys didn’t want competition for their own Web coverage.
“It’s still a very misunderstood medium,” said Lew Harris, editor in chief at entertainment mega-site E! Online. “They’ve got so many people screaming for things that they just haven’t been able to ferret out the voices.”
Competition is also a factor. Dot-com reporters were shut out from the American Music Awards in January, and only one site, ABC.com, was granted exclusive access to the show.
“With the Grammys or the Oscars, they’ve got their own Web sites,” Harris said. “They think it’s going to be competing. They haven’t gotten the idea that publicity is publicity.”
Checkout.com was one of the sites that received streaming audio and video from the official Grammy site, said David Zakon, Checkout’s senior music producer. Checkout writers also attended the Grammys as ticketed guests, and wrote articles from their experiences and from network video feeds and newswire reports.
Writers for E! Online (at
) didn’t send a reporter, but sent a photographer to work the red-carpet entrance. The site also used the E! television network’s video feed for streaming video of star arrivals and interviews.
Entertainment sites are now holding their breath about access to next month’s star-studded Academy Awards show.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences received about 550 media requests, about 40 from dot-coms, for passes to this year’s awards on March 26. Up to 300 journalists will get passes, but the credential list has not yet been determined. Some dot-com reporters received credentials last year.
The Academy allots passes based on the importance of a medium, including audience size and demographics. This would seem to favor Web sites, with a global reach and the potential for huge, young audiences. But additional weight is given to media based on market share and previous coverage of Oscar ceremonies.
“It’s difficult to evaluate,” said Leslie Unger, publicity coordinator for the academy. “Unfortunately, in my instance, I have a venue that stays the same size from year to year. So credentialing a new breed of journalists has to happen at the expense of old breeds of journalists.”
Exclusion from events can’t last, dot-com executives said. Some suggested a separate room be set aside for Internet reporters who could upload updates to the Web as events occur. Others just want legitimate sites to receive some consideration.
“I just think they should have thought a little more closely, and maybe pick five that are the main ones and give them that respect,” Borzillo said. “And they didn’t give us that respect or our competitors that respect.”
