"Keep this exclusive"

[BB Bobcat]

Talked to someone for a story this morning. About 90 minutes later, that person gets back to me and says he just talked to a reporter from a much larger organization for the same story and the guy from the big organization asked him to "keep it exclusive" until their story ran next week, so the guy asked if I could hold off on my story.

It pisses me off that the big organization feels it can bully this poor guy in the middle into not only having him get back to me to retroactively undo his comments, but to prevent him from talking to anyone else in the meantime.

Obviously, I already ran my thing.

This seems like a no-brainer not even worth debate, but figured I'd post it anyway.

 

[Ace]

If he called you to pitch the story and then wanted to renege for whatever reason, I might be willing to listen.

If you called them and the source called back with that request, I would tell him that he needs to tell the big boy that he needs to be first if he wants to be exclusive.

 

[ringer]

It sucks. No question. You did the right thing: scooped em.

Here's another pisser in the same vein.

When you're a freelancer for a variety of outlets (some big-time and some much smaller) an athlete's agent treats you great or like crap TOTALLY depending on who you're writing for -- as if you're not even the same person. Even worse, is when they send you to the back of the line and you know full well that the athlete's not even in demand.

It's a ****ty way to do biz and it's not a very good business model.

I definitely remember those moments the next time a big-time magazine asks me which athletes to feature.

 

[BB Bobcat]

It sucks. No question. You did the right thing: scooped em.

That's thing, it wasn't even really a scoop. The whole story was not a big deal at all. If it was, the big paper would obviously have just run it right away rather than waiting a week. It speaks more to the arrogance of the big paper that they feel they can control the information to fit their schedule.

I told the source that he shouldn't let the big paper bully him. It's in his best interest to tell his story to whoever calls.

 

[slappy4428]

Several years ago, this came up with the bi-weekly I was working at, the big Daily next door and an Olympic athlete in two sports being stalked.
The Big Reporter from the Big Paper we'll call the Peerf got the athlete not to talk to anyone about it -- including the area SE at our paper, who not only had seen her swim from age group but introduced her at a celebration at City Hall after she won a gold medal.
the SE found out and ran a story on the stalker, based on police reports. The athlete flipped out, called the SE, told him that he hoped he enjoyed the millions of dollars his paper was going to make from the story and that big raise he had coming. All the SE did was report what was public record. She froze the SE out, wouldn't be interviewed by him; he'd take it in stride and report her results (for the record, I told him to **** it, she wasn't worth it). When her brother noticed she wasn't being quoted, he asked the SE why. The SE told him and the brother was floored.
The athlete and the SE took years to make it right; even then, she didn't understand why the SE ran the story after she promised the reporter from the Peerf she wouldn't talk.
So good for you scooping them. **** the big city paper and the reporter. I still can't read this reporter's byline without thinking of this story, how the athlete turned on someone who had been there for her throughout her career and the way the reporter extracted the promise.

 

[Ace]

OK. Shoe on other foot.

If you are the big-boy paper or magazine, do you ask sources not to talk to other outlets, or do you hand them business cards of all the area papers and TV stations?

 

[slappy4428]

Neither. I do my story and not worry about the others.
In this case, the athlete **** on someone who had supported her during her whole career. She is high strung, bi-polar and bat**** crazy, which is ironic since she earned much of her income as a motivational speaker.

 

[ringer]

Several years ago, this came up with the bi-weekly I was working at, the big Daily next door and an Olympic athlete in two sports being stalked.
The Big Reporter from the Big Paper we'll call the Peerf got the athlete not to talk to anyone about it -- including the area SE at our paper, who not only had seen her swim from age group but introduced her at a celebration at City Hall after she won a gold medal.
the SE found out and ran a story on the stalker, based on police reports. The athlete flipped out, called the SE, told him that he hoped he enjoyed the millions of dollars his paper was going to make from the story and that big raise he had coming. All the SE did was report what was public record. She froze the SE out, wouldn't be interviewed by him; he'd take it in stride and report her results (for the record, I told him to **** it, she wasn't worth it). When her brother noticed she wasn't being quoted, he asked the SE why. The SE told him and the brother was floored.
The athlete and the SE took years to make it right; even then, she didn't understand why the SE ran the story after she promised the reporter from the Peerf she wouldn't talk.
So good for you scooping them. **** the big city paper and the reporter. I still can't read this reporter's byline without thinking of this story, how the athlete turned on someone who had been there for her throughout her career and the way the reporter extracted the promise.

So who broke the story? The biweekly?

 

[playthrough]

It sucks. No question. You did the right thing: scooped em.

Here's another pisser in the same vein.

When you're a freelancer for a variety of outlets (some big-time and some much smaller) an athlete's agent treats you great or like crap TOTALLY depending on who you're writing for -- as if you're not even the same person. Even worse, is when they send you to the back of the line and you know full well that the athlete's not even in demand.

It's a ****ty way to do biz and it's not a very good business model.

I definitely remember those moments the next time a big-time magazine asks me which athletes to feature.

That's the worst. I've been on both sides, working for Big National Company and small newspaper. You can see the eyeballs of the agents/PR hacks/whoever looking down for a quick check of the outlet on the credential, and depending on what they see, the conversation continues or it's buh-bye.

On the other hand, you don't forget the reps who treated you the same regardless of affiliation. They're called "professionals."

 

[fossywriter8]

We're a small weekly with a competing daily in town which, naturally, gets a lot of stuff in before us. However, if we're the first -- key word, first -- to talk to someone for a feature article, we ask if they can hold off on talking to anyone else until after we run the story.
If you're not first, it's fair game.

 

[BB Bobcat]

I disagree that any outlet has a right to expect any source not to talk to any other outlet. Period.

You hold a story. You take a risk.

 

[Ace]

I don't think I've ever asked someone not to talk to others unless they brought the issue up themselves or they were some PR person trying to work a deal.

 

[slappy4428]

Several years ago, this came up with the bi-weekly I was working at, the big Daily next door and an Olympic athlete in two sports being stalked.
The Big Reporter from the Big Paper we'll call the Peerf got the athlete not to talk to anyone about it -- including the area SE at our paper, who not only had seen her swim from age group but introduced her at a celebration at City Hall after she won a gold medal.
the SE found out and ran a story on the stalker, based on police reports. The athlete flipped out, called the SE, told him that he hoped he enjoyed the millions of dollars his paper was going to make from the story and that big raise he had coming. All the SE did was report what was public record. She froze the SE out, wouldn't be interviewed by him; he'd take it in stride and report her results (for the record, I told him to **** it, she wasn't worth it). When her brother noticed she wasn't being quoted, he asked the SE why. The SE told him and the brother was floored.
The athlete and the SE took years to make it right; even then, she didn't understand why the SE ran the story after she promised the reporter from the Peerf she wouldn't talk.
So good for you scooping them. **** the big city paper and the reporter. I still can't read this reporter's byline without thinking of this story, how the athlete turned on someone who had been there for her throughout her career and the way the reporter extracted the promise.

So who broke the story? The biweekly?

Both, actually. The biweekly had the story that she was being stalked, dry, factual and from the police reports. The daily had the longer feature story with quotes and incidents from the athlete.

For a couple of years, the reporter at the biweekly kept her voice mail on his answering machine. For someone who did a lot for her career, the athlete sure forgot her roots.

 

[SixToe]

On the other hand, you don't forget the reps who treated you the same regardless of affiliation. They're called "professionals."

This.

 

[forever_town]

On the other hand, you don't forget the reps who treated you the same regardless of affiliation. They're called "professionals."

Exactly. It's one reason I still enjoy talking about the time I covered the NCAA women's basketball tournament's games at Comcast Center. The reason? Even though I was at a small weekly, the guy who was the boss of the SIDs gave me a seat at center court, right next to a guy from one of the big papers.

I may have worked for a small outlet, but they didn't treat me like it.

 

[beanpole]

OK. Shoe on other foot.

If you are the big-boy paper or magazine, do you ask sources not to talk to other outlets, or do you hand them business cards of all the area papers and TV stations?

I don't specifically ask them not to talk to the competition. But if there's a good piece of enterprise I'll ask if anyone else is working on the story and will say that we can give the the piece a better ride if we're first with it. I'd never ask a PR person to go back on an interview with an outlet that he or she has already given -- you can put the genie back in the bottle. But PR people know that my shop will play the hell out of a good enterprise piece that we're first on, and that we'll spike an enterprise piece if our competiton runs it out there first.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

I was in an all-area meeting with writers from several papers once and someone asked if we could agree to embargo the list until a certain day. The one writer from a major metro said, 'I'm going to run it tomorrow' and kind of smirked about it. He's a guy I've grown to respect since then, but this really rubbed me the wrong way. When the major metro needed my help later on, let's just say I was less than forthcoming. One good professional courtesy turn deserves another.

 

[albert77]

Best interview I've ever had with a "big name" was once when Tim Brando came to speak to a high school scholar-athlete banquet. I wasn't sure what to expect, but figured I'd get at least a quick five-minute interview. We ended up talking for at least 20 minutes about all sorts of topics. It didn't matter that I was just a preps writer for a small-town daily, he treated me like I was a national columnist for the New York Times.

 

[murphyc]

A few years back, I was freelancing for a daily paper (about 40K) and had started an auto racing page. I was doing a big story about racing in the Northwest, and was covering the Champ Car race in Portland. On a whim, I decided to try and get Jimmy Vasser, still a big name at the time. Jimmy's PR guy misheard me and thought I was with The Oregonian (somewhat close in name, but not in size) and called Jimmy over. When Jimmy was almost to us, I mentioned to the PR guy the right name of the paper. But by then it was too late for him to back out, Jimmy was already there. Part of me wondered why I corrected him since I didn't want to lose the interview, but I also wanted to be ethical. If the PR guy had heard the name of the paper correctly in the first place, my nickel's bet is the guy would have blown me off.

 

[murphyc]

I disagree that any outlet has a right to expect any source not to talk to any other outlet. Period.

You hold a story. You take a risk.

I agree. Being at weeklies twice in my career (including now) I've held my breath more than once, hoping the competition (both daily and TV) doesn't get to scoop me. But I'm not going to ask for an exclusive. If I'm pretty certain the competition will get the story before my paper hits the street, I'll post something on our website first. If the source offers to hold off on telling others, that's fine.