All-Area attribution question

[Central-KY-Kid]

The newspaper I work at just released its All-Area Volleyball Team, which includes seven schools.

One of the weekly papers in the area, which is part of the same newspaper chain that my place is, did a story about its team's coach earning Coach of the Year honors. But not once in the story did the paper make mention that it was my newspaper who ran the team (we oversee the voting and have a say in the voting as well).

No big deal?

Contact the sports editor (who my paper has had issues with in the past) who wrote the story?

Any opinions?

 

[Ace]

If it is in the same chain, no big deal.

If you want to be a smart-ass, though, you could contact the editor and say that since they are using the team without crediting who did it, maybe they will help do some of the legwork next year.

 

[Ledbetter]

Did the weekly say the coach was the Podunk Weekly coach of the year or did it say the coach was recently named the ****burger Daily News coach of the year?

One makes it sounds like he was the weekly's pick, while the other references who picked him.

 

[Central-KY-Kid]

The weekly paper used "Area Coach of the Year"

 

[jay_christley]

I wouldn't get all worked up about it.
It could be a blatant case of not giving proper credit to you. Or it could be a matter that whom ever did the story is a poor journalist.
With so many organizations giving awards at all levels, how do you do a story on somebody and not explain who gave them the award?

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Yea, it's nothing to get worked up about. Maybe if you see him at an event, you could ask him what happened.

It really sounds like the guy is a poor journalist. Just saying Area coach of the year tells the reader nothing. There should be some sort of designator (paper, conference, district, region, etc, etc).

 

[Breakyoself]

it's bull****, but maybe the best thing would be to just make a sarcastic comment the next time you see him.

 

[slappy4428]

If they lifted quotes, hell yeah pitch a fit. If they didn't, might want to casually mention it next time you see the SE...

 

[Tom Petty]

If it is in the same chain, no big deal.

If you want to be a smart-ass, though, you could contact the editor and say that since they are using the team without crediting who did it, maybe they will help do some of the legwork next year.
[/quote

yup. chain "owns" the piece.

 

[Central-KY-Kid]

In the same edition as the All-Area Volleyball Coach article, the sports editor of said weekly paper in our chain used our season preview on their county school's wrestling team verbatim other than coming up with a new two-graph lede. Removed our writer's name (who used to work for them about 2 years ago). No attribution, no "information from the Podunk Press was used in this report."

This same sports editor, who has been with the weekly for around a decade, I think, wrote a column two years ago about our paper not covering some wrestling meet her son's team was in about two hours away.

 

[Ace]

In the same edition as the All-Area Volleyball Coach article, the sports editor of said weekly paper in our chain used our season preview on their county school's wrestling team verbatim other than coming up with a new two-graph lede. Removed our writer's name (who used to work for them about 2 years ago). No attribution, no "information from the Podunk Press was used in this report."

This same sports editor, who has been with the weekly for around a decade, I think, wrote a column two years ago about our paper not covering some wrestling meet her son's team was in about two hours away.

If that is the case, I would send him a note saying that you noticed he is using your preview and all-area information and was glad that he found your paper's work useful.

In the future, perhaps since he is using your paper's work anyway, you might combine forces and have him help select and write the all area teams and season previews.

Thanks so much, etc., etc.

 

[Breakyoself]

tell you edtior, and have them deal with it. that is bull**** they are using your stuff, same chain or not. if they use it, they should attribute it.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

tell you edtior, and have them deal with it. that is bull**** they are using your stuff, same chain or not. if they use it, they should attribute it.

I told our ME today and he's going to look into it. The thing that pissed me off the most was they used everything verbatim from what I wrote. I don't care if they used the same quotes from the coach, but they used everything I wrote with no attribution.

I live in the county where this paper comes out and yeah, I used to work for them on the side, but them doing this just pisses me off beyond belief. I'm going to let my ME and SE handle it and whatever happens happens.

 

[Breakyoself]

that is the way to go about it and hopefully they will respect your writing from now on. Were your superiors mad when you told them what happened. I sure as hell would be.

 

[Tom Petty]

tell you edtior, and have them deal with it. that is bull**** they are using your stuff, same chain or not. if they use it, they should attribute it.

last stop i was at, we had a few weeklies that picked and chose what they wanted from our paper. i, much like KY, became a little testy because of no attribution. i pissed and moaned and basically was told to "get over it. we have X amount of resources and they don't have ****. who cares what they do with your section's copy after it's written anyway. besides, it's what's best for the company, and the last time i checked, the company paid your salary." and that came from our publisher after the editor didn't give me a satisfactory answer.

didn't make me any happier, but i did learn the tough lesson of who owns the words we produce.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

This is why I don't bother putting other paper's all-star selections in my paper. My paper is not in business to promote other papers (which is probably why your paper wasn't named as the source of the all-area honor), so unless it's the coaches association all-star team (which has nothing to do with any paper), it won't get in my paper.

 

[Starman]

This is why I don't bother putting other paper's all-star selections in my paper. My paper is not in business to promote other papers (which is probably why your paper wasn't named as the source of the all-area honor), so unless it's the coaches association all-star team (which has nothing to do with any paper), it won't get in my paper.

NEVER use any other paper's all-star team in your paper.

AP All-State, or coach's association, OK -- as long as the coach's association team is independent, and not sponsored by another paper.

If your paper is supposed to care enough about prep sports to run an all-area team, then do your own. They can be, and often are, a huge load of work, but if need be, you can also hammer them down so they're not really all that much work. If you're covering prep sports in your paper on a regular basis, by midseason in each sport, you should have a pretty decent idea of who the better players are.