Fainaru-Wada to ESPN

Big news out of the Bay:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/espn-beef-up-reporting-unit/story.aspx?guid=%7B7CEA8218%2DBBA0%2D4B8F%2D894C%2D7BCA7DFC6E77%7D

 

Curious how many of his notes he'll be allowed to take w/ him.

 

I'm curious about this too. Does a newspaper own the notes a reporter takes? What about sources? If left my job would I have to surrender all my notebooks and contact lists?

Sorry for the threadjack so early in the process

 

You're assuming any notes actually exist. Many newspapers require that notes be destroyed.

 

So why not Lance Williams too? Is he loyal to the Chron? Or could ESPN not hire both him and T.J. Quinn?

 

My paper requires that notes and audio recordings are destroyed two weeks after publication

 

What is that, "Mission:Impossible"?
I hang onto audio recordings all season, in case I want to go back and pull out something for a feature. Easy to archive now, transfering audio files to laptop.

 

That's something I've never come across (granted I've only worked at two previous papers). I remember someone at a workshop saying it was a good idea to destroy your notes after a story has been published, but when I related that to my boss back at my (former) paper, he thought that was ridiculous, reasoning what if you got sued for libel and had no notes to support your side?
Does anybody think this is a topic I should start as a separate thread?

 

Yes...we've debated this in the past and it was a good discussion.

 

I think the point is that if you did get sued, the notes and recordings couldn't be grabbed by the lawyers.
If you did have them, and you didn't turn them over, you could go to jail. As has happened in the past.
I don't know how many people actually comply with it.
I don't throw out notebooks every two weeks. I do delete audio files and I don't save them to my laptop, unless I'm working on some ongoing project.