KobreGuide's Top 25 for Oct. '09

Here are the top 25 most popular video stories on KobreGuide.com for the month of October 2009.

For the past couple months, we listed only recently published stories, since it seemed that these "best-seller lists" become self-prophetic -- by clicking on popular stories, it makes them seem even more popular. But then we found that the top of the list remained pretty much the same anyway, owing in part to the fact that many of these stories are linked from high-traffic Websites.

In any case, their mere presence on KobreGuide in the first place attests to their high quality, and that they merit your attention.

As always, they span an array of topics and themes, and originate from a broad spectrum of media outlets. Their tone ranges from comic to tragic.

To varying degrees, they all inform and entertain, and represent the cutting edge of visual aesthetics, high journalism standards, and good storytelling.

KobreGuide strives to showcase topical stories, but gravitates towards evergreen features, not news.

So if you missed any of these the first time around, they should all still feel fresh and not outdated. Now's your chance to catch them, and we hope you do.

1. Pit Bulls: Companions or Killers?

2. Bolivia's Women Wrestlers

3. Acid Attacks

4. Being a Black Man

5. Conjoined Twins (pictured)

6. The Sand Dancer

7. Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr

8. Being Aron Ralston

9. Ana's Story

10. Turtle Man

11.Ian Fisher: American Soldier

12. Burned in the War

13. Living Galapagos

14. A Hendrix Experience in Hollywood

15. Hungry: Living with Prader-Willi Syndrome

16. Mending Broken Hearts

17. Talking to the Taliban

18. Zora Neale Hurston's Hometown Legacy

19. Train Jumping: A Desperate Journey

20. 85 and Still Kicking

21. Trapped: Mental Illness in America's Prisons

22. Weegee

23. A Place for Jani

24. The Girl in the Window

25. Prison Overcrowding

P.S. Here's a statistic we're happy to share. In the year since KobreGuide launched (in October 2008), our audience and page views have steadily increased 10 to 20% per month.

We've still got a ways to go to achieve the kind of traffic enjoyed by the major media institutions we showcase and champion, but we're enthused to know that the receptive audience for videojournalism that we originally targeted does in fact exist.

In fact, all signs point to nonfiction video stories becoming a bigger and more potent force in the near future, and we're proud to say that KobreGuide has been ahead of the curve in recognizing this. We'll hope you'll stay with us for the fascinating journey ahead.