Road to Ruin

MSNBC has created an interactive timeline charting the major business milestones of America's auto industry over since 1978. It also charts the stocks of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Company and Chrysler as well as gas prices per gallon, new car dealerships, dealership employees and new vehicles sold.
There can never be too much context with complex issues like those plaging the automotive industry right now, and MSNBC helps give a fresh look at the big picture with its interactive media.
View the timeline here.

GM bankruptcy resources

The Los Angeles Times has created a list of General Motors Corp. top 20 unsecured creditors with the type and amount of claims each has in G.M., a great resource for reporting how G.M. filing for bankruptcy will affect other organizations. It also has great graphics on the number of union workers at G.M. and G.M.'s global sales by region.
The New York Times also has enlightening multimedia on G.M.'s current predicament, including a timeline graphing G.M.'s history from 1908 to today chronicling its struggles and successes up to the Chapter 11. Its graph contrasting the amount of cars and trucks G.M. has been producing since the 1960s is also very insightful. A NYT map showing the number and locations of jobs the company has cut in the past two years helps show where plants may be closed and jobs may be lost in the aftermath of the bankruptcy filing.
Click here to see the most recent press releases from G.M.

Have other information or resources you'd like us to find for you? Comment and let us know.

The recession interactive

Portfolio.com, despite its rocky road to survival over the past few months, hasn't faltered in creating outstanding interactive media covering business. Its packages have simplified recent economic issues and put them into context in a clear, visual way.
Take the interactive multimedia with Band-Aids for the Ailing Economy, for example. Portfolio staff created a comprehensive timeline from 1860 to 2008 showing fluctuations in the nation's gross domestic product, wars, financial crises, house majority and major government regulations on the banking industry. This piece not only displays the nuances of what contributes to a faltering economy, but puts today's recession into context in America's financial history.
This multimedia feature achieves what all business coverage should-it takes vast amounts of complex data and facts and serves it to users in comprehensible, chewable pieces.
Some other Portfolio interactive pieces to check out:
Wall Street's Graveyard, Brother, Can You Spare $2?, The Green Miles, Subprimal Headquarters, and False Starts. The graphic Uncle Sam's Growing Portfolio is also worth a look.

To see Portfolio's interactive features section, click here.