Posts Tagged ‘Brian Ross’

While the new “World News with Diane Sawyer” premiered on ABC last night, one longtime Web production — the daily World News Webcast — is taking a break.

“We put the Webcast on hiatus,” show EP Jon Banner tells WebNewser. Banner has added new elements to Diane Sawyer‘s Web presence including “The Conversation.”

“‘The Conversation’ is a natural extension of what’s happening on air. And allows us to talk to some of our great top-notch beat correspondents in a way that’s not always possible on the broadcast,” says Banner.

The online chat is recorded on Webcam, in the newsroom, or wherever the correspondent or anchor may be. And while it may be edited, it is unvarnished showing the so-called “sausage making” that goes in to producing a nightly newscast.

“I think both the mission of the broadcast and our online mission is similar in that I want it to have a more real feel,” says Banner. “This is not always 100% polished, this is an attempt and being a little bit more real. Everything in life is not perfectly lit.

• More: “The Conversation” from today, in Brian Ross‘ office.

After the uproar last week begun by a New York Times story about an ABC News interview with a former CIA officer, an emailer notes a strange coincidence on the ABCNews.com homepage. The video of the “exclusive” interview can’t be seen.

When you click on what is supposed to be Brian Ross‘ Dec. 2007 interview with John Kirakou, two commercials play, then it immediately begins playing a related video from April ’09, titled “Secret torture tapes revealed.”

We tested it at least six times today, and it happened every time.

ABC News tells us there are problems with several videos, and that the problem is being corrected. But as of 4:15pmET, it still isn’t working.

> Update: Well, we’re not sure if there’s any correlation, but as of 4:30pmET, the video now works. Here’s the link.

ABCNews.com has released its January numbers, and like the Websites of other news organizations, ABCNews.com saw a boost thanks to the inauguration. The site had 22.1 million unique visitors in January, up 24% month-over-month. Video views increased 50% year-over-year.

ABC News’ mobile site, m.abcnews.com, increased 5% in page views versus the previous month.

Another traffic driver, ABCNews.com’s “Blotter,” the website of ABC’s Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross and the Investigative Unit. Ross reported exclusively that the CIA’s former station chief in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug. Ross broke the news on “The Blotter” and further reported on “World News with Charles Gibson.” The “Blotter” had nearly 1 million page views for that report alone.

As part of ABC’s Presidential Inauguration coverage, ABC News Digital will live stream the oath of office and Pres. Obama’s inaugural address. This is the first time ABCNews.com has live streamed an event on their homepage and it will be in 16 x 9 widescreen. Oh, and it’s sponsored by Audi.

The live stream will run from 11:30amET to approximately 1:30pmET at ABCNews.com.

But that’s not all ABC Digital has planned. Sam Donaldson‘s going to have a very long day… more after the jump

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