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Trade Publications Picking Up Asset Managers' Slack on Web 2.0

by Lindsay

kasina has been touting the opportunities presented by Web 2.0 concepts for years, most recently in our report, The Asset Manager's Guide to Web 2.0. Thus far, only a few asset management firms, T. Rowe Price and TIAA-CREF among them, have begun to venture into this space. While asset managers have been slow to embrace the ideas of interactive forums and user-generated content on their own Web sites, other players in the industry are picking up the slack.

The latest example of this trend is Ignites' MoneyVoices. The newest feature of the Ignites Web site presents an opinion piece, written by an industry expert, on a timely issue, and allows readers to post comments about the piece. The comment functionality works like a blog: comments are solicited at the end of the article and previous comments are listed below, in chronological order. Comments are reviewed before they are posted, giving Ignites a degree of control over the content and discouraging unproductive comments.

MoneyVoices was debuted last week, so it remains to be seen whether actual participation and interest will match the hype, but we see it as a step in the right direction, regardless. If industry publications and online resources continue to embrace Web 2.0, and reap the benefits of increasing user engagement and garnering publicity, maybe asset managers will finally decide to jump on the bandwagon.