How You Can Help

We're on the verge of launching the beta version of KOBREGUIDE.COM, our online guide to the Web's best video and multimedia journalism -- or, as we call it, the Web's most moving stories -- and we're hoping you'll take the opportunity NOW to submit your favorite candidates...

This project is an antidote to comprehensive Web video portals, such as YouTube and MetaCafe... We're focusing instead on handpicked, high-quality documentary-style journalism that is being produced primarily by major media outlets -- and frustratingly difficult for consumers to find...

We're a "curated" site (to use the latest buzzword, now that "edited" seems to have lost favor), which means that we're relying on discerning eyes and ears of people like YOU (and not search engines or web bots) to help alert and point us to the creme de la creme ...

We've already located scores of prizeworthy multimedia gems to showcase at launch, and now we're soliciting input from smart folks like you, who are in a position to know about and share the good stuff out there...

Criteria? ... Think "60 Minutes" TV newsmagazine-style journalism (NOT daily news or event coverage) -- but geared for the Web... Mainly video, but also compelling audio-slideshows, or a hybrid thereof... Go to mediastorm.org to see excellent examples produced by our colleague Brian Storm...

In short: True (nonfiction) journalism Web multimedia stories of the highest professional quality...

Let's break it down:

1. True. Nonfiction. Not scripted or improv sitcom. Not America's funniest home videos.

2. Journalism -- meets professional standards and criteria, preferably (but not necessarily) produced by reputable major media news outlet... NOT daily news stories or events coverage, but rather feature pieces, probably with multiple sources/voices and possibly (but not necessarily) narration...

3. Must be on the Web (preferably created exclusively for the Web -- i.e. not previously aired on TV).

4. Includes video and/or audio slideshow -- i.e. compelling moving images. May include other cutting-edge multimedia elements, BUT ultimately video and/or photographs tell the story (not just charts, graphs, maps, illustrations)... And not just captioned photogalleries ...

5. Documentary stories -- not news event coverage, but rather "60 Minutes" TV newsmagazine-style pieces with a beginning, middle, end... interesting characters... and moral or point of view.... NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT let the word "documentary" dissuade you from seeking and submitting lighthearted fare ; topics/themes need not be dreary...

6. Professional quality -- the still and/or moving images, audio, writing, editing and storytelling must meet the journalism industry's highest professional standards...

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WHAT TO DO:

1. If you know anyone who is developing or producing Web multimedia journalism, please put us in touch with them... (kenkobre at gmail.com)

2. If you know of a media outlet that regularly produces top-notch Web multimedia journalism (e.g. a metro newspaper site), please email us its URL... (kenkobre at gmail.com)

3. If you come across any individual examples of these kinds of pieces in your Web travels, either previously or in the future, please email us the URL (or, if you don't remember where you saw it, even a short description would help us locate it)... (kenkobre at gmail.com)

All we need is a URL, but it would be helpful to also have: Name of Website; title of piece; brief description; why you like it and/or think it is meritorious... First submitters will be credited on the site, along with their comments...

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BOTTOM LINE: As major media companies are migrating their resources from print and broadcast to their online ventures, multimedia journalism stories are coming into their prime on the Web... Little by little, truly excellent work is starting to blossom and flourish -- the problem is, who has time to hunt for it?...

With your help, we will provide the quintessential daily guide to the best the medium has to offer, so that you don't have to wade through a swamp of video nonsense to get to the good stuff...

PLEASE pass along this request to everyone you know whose intelligence and good taste will help fuel this quest...

What We're All About

We're just a few weeks away from beta-launch of KOBRE GUIDE TO THE WEB'S BEST VIDEO & MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM at KOBREGUIDE.COM....

What distinguishes KOBREGUIDE from all the other video Websites?...

Here's a sneak peek at our mission statement (below)... Let us know what you think...

And if, in your Web travels, you find a favorite story that meets these criteria, by all means please share it with us: kenkobre at gmail.com ...

KOBRE GUIDE MISSION STATEMENT

1. Promote and champion professional multimedia journalism

Kobre Guide is the portal for the Web’s most moving stories. It organizes and showcases the medium’s best documentary-style professional multimedia journalism. It is the Web’s TV Guide for non-fiction feature stories that incorporate audio and/or video components, and are about important people and issues. It is “60 Minutes” for the 21st Century -- the thinking person’s YouTube.

For busy consumers, Kobre Guide provides “one-stop shopping” for the Web’s best multimedia stories. For media outlets, Kobre Guide targets and delivers the sophisticated demographic and psychographic they have long been yearning for.

2. Offer exclusively professionally curated gems

Instead of offering user-generated content, or zillions of search-engine results, Kobre Guide is meticulously curated by a staff of top journalists who hand-pick all selections and annotate and organize them so they can be easily searched and viewed. Visitors appreciate knowing that they will always be served a balanced five-course meal by top chefs, and not thousands of blades of grass.

3. Offer exclusively professionally produced stories

Instead of a swamp of amateur home videos, Kobre Guide presents only the most sophisticated professional quality storytelling projects, generated by the world’s most distinguished journalism practitioners, including major media organizations who have won Pulitzers, Emmys and other industry awards.

If YouTube is the Web offspring of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” Kobre Guide is the next generation of “60 Minutes” style newsmagazines, which for years topped television ratings charts.

Kobre Guide points viewers to the highest quality and attention-worthy documentary-style (i.e. non-news) video, audio slideshows and photojournalism projects that are being produced by leading news organizations (e.g. New York Times, Los Angeles Times, CNN, NPR, PBS) and reputable independent producers. These media outlets have the manpower and financial resources to dispatch journalists around the globe in search of the most important stories, developed and produced to the industry’s highest professional standards.

4. Make it simple and easy for viewers to use

Kobre Guide hosts no multimedia content – instead, we simply showcase and annotate it, organize it by “channels,” present it on easy-to-navigate grids, and link directly to the source. Viewers can find stories with one click.

5. Offer only the best of the best

Kobre Guide independently scouts, compiles, annotates and organizes content – we are neither a search engine nor a “dumping ground” for grass-roots contributions, nor do we aspire to be all-inclusive or comprehensive in scope. We will consider submissions, but ultimately everything that is featured on our site has been vetted and approved by our editorial staff, and is presented as the “cream of the crop.”

Unlike popular automated news aggregators (Google News, Yahoo News), Kobre Guide selections are handpicked by seasoned journalists who not only scour the Web for suitable candidates, but also have professional relationships with the top media outlets (e.g. New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Post, Dallas Morning News, etc.) who provide topnotch choices.

6. Help viewers save time

The advantage to time-strapped Web viewers – who are faced with an overwhelming amount of options -- is that we provide an “at a glance” map and compass to the most prestigious “must see” multimedia projects, and enable them to make intelligent viewing choices based on useful criteria (e.g. topic, tone, source, viewing time). We’re finding the needles in the haystack for them.

7. Help media outlets attract viewers

The advantage to the multimedia producers whose projects we feature (e.g. newspapers, magazines, TV shows, etc.) is that we are directly connecting them to their Web audience – a challenge that has, to their collective despair, so far eluded even the top journalism brands. It has taken traditional “static” media a while to figure out how to tell “moving stories” – and now that they’re starting to get the hang of it, they still haven’t quite been able to generate enough viewership to satisfy advertisers. Consequently, quality Web multimedia journalism has been a perplexingly and distressingly money-losing proposition. This “one-stop” site will benefit professional journalism purveyors enormously by directly delivering eyeballs to their doorsteps.

Currently these prizeworthy photojournalism and videojournalism projects are well hidden. Though major news organizations began exploring Web multimedia possibilities since the necessary technology blossomed at the beginning of this century, it’s only been in the past year or so that their efforts have born meaningful fruit. Only recently have we begun to see well-crafted Web-specific reports that play to the strengths and characteristics of the medium and its audience. Alas, individual newspaper Websites are still struggling with how to draw audiences to their efforts. Casual visitors to these sites can easily miss the multimedia content – and, even after stumbling upon it, would have difficulty distinguishing the high quality material that’s worthy of their valuable time to view it. As a result, most of it goes unseen and unappreciated… to the dismay of the producers and media outlets who have heavily invested in it, and are banking on mass audience appeal to lure the advertising dollars needed to monetize future efforts.

8. Help local media outlets find a national audience

While there are meritorious Webvideo reports of local or regional interest, Kobre Guide is primarily looking for hidden gems that have universal appeal. While many Web travelers are likely to look at the online version of their local newspaper, they are unlikely to peruse the newspaper Websites of other cities, where multimedia stories of universal interest to them may in fact reside. Kobre Guide will therefore serve as a one-stop aggregator of the world’s best English language newsfeature multimedia.

9. Provide substance and variety

How long are the stories? They range in length from a watercooler break (1-3 minutes) to a snack (5-10 minutes) to a feast (30 minutes-plus). Using the print magazine model, some are columns or departments and others are cover stories. They are not the equivalent of TV news stories, though some may be “backgrounders” that provide a closeup focus on a personal story that brings to life a bigger issue or event. We have channels for stories that make you laugh, stories that make you cry, and stories that make you wonder.

While Kobre Guide is designed to appeal to the visual generation, we are not in competition with YouTube, MetaCafe or Revver, in that our audience yearns for high-quality professionally produced content – a nutritious meal, not empty calories.

10. Resurrect the lost art of non-fiction storytelling

What kind of projects are most likely to be found on Kobre Guide? People oriented stories. Stories that show emotion. Stories that have an impact. Stories that are important. Stories with a narrative arc – beginning, middle, end. Stories people will care about. Stories that are interesting. Stories that enable you to learn, and to better function as an intelligent citizen of the world. Stories you’ll want to share with your family, friends and colleagues. Stories about topics and issues that affect you. Stories that are good to know. Stories that you need to know. Stories with information that will improve your awareness, knowledge and understanding. Stories that will deepen and broaden your perceptions. Stories that are life-changing and life-affirming. Stories that are entertaining. Stories that are good for you.