Beau Brendler Named Director Of Consumers Union's New Web Credibility Project

YONKERS, N.Y. — Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, has named Beau Brendler, former editorial director of ABCNEWS.com and one of its founders, as director of its new Web Credibility Project to establish, promote and win adherence for core standards to help ensure the credibility of information on the Internet

Consumers Union's Web Credibility Project will:

• Examine broad trends and underlying business models on the Web as well as specific information practices on health, finance, travel, consumer shopping and journalism sites. The findings will be made broadly available to the new media and also reported to the public through Consumer Reports magazine, Consumer Reports Online, and CU's other media.
• Develop effective standards and best practices for credible information and information disclosure on the Web, and work with other organizations to promote them and encourage Web publishers to adopt them. These standards may include: disclosure of Web site identity and its location, labeling of advertising and sponsored content, and disclosure of information practices.
• Educate consumers about how to evaluate the information practices of Web sites, and ensure the information they obtain is reliable and trustworthy. ConsumerReports.org (http://www.consumerreports.org) will evaluate the disclosure policies and credibility of information of selected Web sites, and report the findings through its e-Ratings.

"This project has enormously ambitious goals," Brendler said, "and now more than ever, with Web ventures shutting down every week, consumers need to know that the sites they are relying on for news, vital information and business transactions aren't hiding anything and are doing their jobs in an honest, credible way."

The Web Credibility Project is supported by three-year grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and a one-year grant from the Open Society Institute.

The project also plans to name an advisory board from members of the online media and e-commerce communities; work with groups dedicated to similar goals, such as the Online News Association, Sigma Delta Chi/Society of Professional Journalists and others; provide public education on what makes a Web site credible or not credible; and to give out annual awards recognizing the most and the least credible sites on the Web. The Web Credibility Project plans to launch a Web site to serve these goals later this year.

Brendler most recently worked as Editorial Director at ABCNEWS.com in New York City. In five years at ABCNEWS.com, his newsroom team covered the 2000 elections, the conflict over Kosovo, shootings at Columbine High School, the Clinton administration scandals and House impeachment, and dozens of other major stories. He led ABC's Web newsroom to win four of online journalism's major awards the last couple of years: two Sigma Delta Chi first-place awards in a row for breaking news, for coverage of the Kursk tragedy in 2000, and of the Kosovo conflict in 1999; the Online News Association's 1999 first-place award for breaking news, for coverage of the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle; and the People's Voice Award Webby for best news site.

Brendler's career spans newspapers, magazines, broadcast and online media, including the start-up and launch of eight news Web sites. Prior to starting up ABCNEWS.com in 1996, he worked as news editor at PoliticsNow.com in Washington, D.C., one of the Internet's most successful political news sites. Before its 1996 merger with The Washington Post Company and ABC News, Brendler held the same position at Times Mirror/National Journal's PoliticsUSA Web site.

He also worked as editor-in-chief for Washington Technology magazine and Tech News publications in Washington, D.C., taking that company's publications on to the Web in 1994; covered the Pentagon, White House and congress; and was a reporter and assistant city editor for The Anchorage Daily Times in Anchorage, AK.

He has spoken at major conferences on credibility in the new media, has won a number of reporting awards, including the 1993 C.B. Blethen Memorial Award for Distinguished Investigative Reporting, and in addition to print journalism work has authored journal articles on new technology, privacy, chemical and biological weapons proliferation, and the role of government intelligence agencies in the birth of the Internet and World Wide Web.

The Web Credibility Project grew out of a 1998 conference sponsored by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, where print and new media journalists agreed there was a need to create effective standards to ensure appropriate separation of editorial content, advertising and e-commerce on the Web. Based on her role in identifying the major credibility issues the Web was facing, The Pew Charitable Trusts hired Denise Caruso, then a technology columnist for The New York Times and a veteran industry analyst and commentator, to determine the feasibility of working with the Internet community and journalists on how credibility standards might be created. Her efforts led to the Web Credibility Project with Consumers Union.

Consumers Union's mission is to test, inform and protect. Since 1936, it has provided consumers with information and advice on goods, services, health and personal finance. More than 100 testing experts work in its 50 labs and auto test center. Tests and ratings for performance, safety, reliability and value are based on government and industry standards, and on standards Consumers Union experts determine should apply. To supplement this laboratory testing, thousands of consumers are surveyed each year on their experiences with products and services.

Consumers Union publishes its findings in the venerable Consumer Reports, which has four million subscribers and an estimated readership of more than 16 million. ConsumerReports.org, Consumers Union's online presence, is the largest paid magazine subscription site on the Web with more than 560,000. These two flagship publications are supplemented by Consumer Reports Television, Reports to Consumers radio features, a syndicated newspaper column and a number of issue-specific newsletters. Because Consumers Union accepts no revenue from advertisers or industry, it is beholden to no commercial interest and is responsible only to its subscribers and members.

The Pew Charitable Trusts invest in ideas that fuel timely action and results. Based in Philadelphia, Pew makes strategic investments to help organizations and citizens develop practical solutions to difficult problems. In 2000, with approximately $4.9 billion in assets, Pew committed more than $235 million to 302 non-profit organizations.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities.

The Open Society Institute U.S. Programs encourages debates in areas where one view of an issue dominates all others. OSI U.S. Programs is part of a network of foundations in nearly 40 countries, created and funded by George Soros.

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Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, is an independent, nonprofit testing and information gathering organization, serving only the consumer. We are a comprehensive source of unbiased advice about products and services, personal finance, health, nutrition, and other consumer concerns. Since 1936, our mission has been to test products, inform the public, and protect consumers.