Papers' Devils writer from team website

[Bob Crotchet]

Apologies if I missed an earlier post of this, but ... interesting ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/business/media/19devils.html

Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed something truly unusual in Gannett’s New Jersey newspapers. A new byline started appearing this month on articles about the New Jersey Devils hockey team, with a note under each piece stating that the author, Eric Marin, is employed by the Devils, not Gannett.

...

“As long as it served our readers and we told them where that content was coming from, the readers were fine with it,” said Hollis Towns, executive editor of The Asbury Park Press, the largest of the state’s six Gannett papers. “I think journalists get hung up on certain lines of what’s ethical more than the readers.”

He said readers need not worry about seeing articles about school districts or hospitals written by their employees, because the arrangement is limited to sports, and probably will remain that way.

 

[Mitch E.]

Woooooooooowwwwwwwwwww.

“I think journalists get hung up on certain lines of what’s ethical more than the readers.”

I think executive editors get hung up on certain lines of stupidity.

 

[slappy4428]

Yeah, cause you know... executive editors always take the high road, unless it bites them in the ass... like this will.

 

[HanSenSE]

Why stop there? Why not let the mayor write the city council story, the police chief write the cop briefs, and run submitted photos of every kindergarten Christmas pageant? Same principle.

 

[crusoes]

This thread is useless without the word "synergy."

 

[YankeeFan]

“I think journalists get hung up on certain lines of what’s ethical more than the readers.”

That's just awesome. How the hell could he say that? Try to justify it all you want, but don't say that.

It's funny to me to see this though. I was just thinking the other day about all of the copy that MLB.com puts out. At some point, with papers trying to save money by dropping the AP, would MLB make their copy available to papers, and would papers use it?

Based on this, I'd say some would.

And MLB would be able to control the message even more.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Dan "The Midget" Snyder is laughing hysterically.

 

[Drip]

Apologies if I missed an earlier post of this, but ... interesting ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/business/media/19devils.html

Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed something truly unusual in Gannett’s New Jersey newspapers. A new byline started appearing this month on articles about the New Jersey Devils hockey team, with a note under each piece stating that the author, Eric Marin, is employed by the Devils, not Gannett.

...

“As long as it served our readers and we told them where that content was coming from, the readers were fine with it,” said Hollis Towns, executive editor of The Asbury Park Press, the largest of the state’s six Gannett papers. “I think journalists get hung up on certain lines of what’s ethical more than the readers.”

He said readers need not worry about seeing articles about school districts or hospitals written by their employees, because the arrangement is limited to sports, and probably will remain that way.

Another sign of things to come in this industry.

 

[daemon]

What the ****. . .

At this point, you might as well charge the Devils to run their coverage. I mean that in all sincerity. If you are going to throw any semblance of integrity out the window, you might as well make some money off of it.

Then, at least, you wouldn't stupid. A ****ty newsman willing to sacrifice one of the final remaining advantages a newspaper has (integrity)? Sure. But at least you could argue that the move makes business sense.

In this case, however, you are both stupid and unethical.

 

[forever_town]

Now that's what I call controlling the message.

Ridiculous.

 

[playthrough]

If someone ever gets busted for plagiarism at Asbury Park, I hope he/she says "well, I didn't want to get hung up on the ethics of it. So what's the problem?"

 

[spnited]

As much as I think this is pathetic, I think Towns is right that readers don't give a ****.
For the most part, they don't know or care where the story comes from, as long as it says someting good about the team they root for, it's a good story.

 

[Frank_Ridgeway]

I think this is awful, don't get me wrong. But how many sports sections of that size and smaller haven't run barely rewritten (or not) handouts, especially from colleges? I fail to see how this is worse, ethically. But I do think it looks bad and basically tells the readers we take whatever the team says as gospel and we're not going to give you anything more than you can get online from the league's website--in fact, we'll give you less than you can get at NHL.com and we'll charge you for it.

 

[KJIM]

As much as I think this is pathetic, I think Towns is right that readers don't give a ****.
For the most part, they don't know or care where the story comes from, as long as it says someting good about the team they root for, it's a good story.

I totally agree. So long as it's a story, it's not likely that *most* reades even notice, let alone give a crap. Many don't know the difference between an opinion, a letter to the editor and a gamer anyway.

Also, not having read the Devils' writer's story, I don't think it's necessarily right to assume it's blatant homerism.

 

[dooley_womack1]

So will Asbury Park count on the Devils for stories about coaching searches or trade deadline stuff?

 

[forever_town]

So long as it's a story, it's not likely that *most* readers even notice, let alone give a crap. Many don't know the difference between an opinion, a letter to the editor and a gamer anyway.

I guess I've run into a more intelligent bunch of "civilians" than most people have. I know people who aren't in the business who notice stuff like this and ***** about it.

Even if the readers don't give a crap, it's still our jobs to do so.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I don't agree with it, but there are lots of small papers that run releases that are written by school SIDs.

 

[MonsterLobster]

“I think journalists get hung up on certain lines of what’s ethical more than the readers.”

That's just awesome. How the hell could he say that? Try to justify it all you want, but don't say that.

It's funny to me to see this though. I was just thinking the other day about all of the copy that MLB.com puts out. At some point, with papers trying to save money by dropping the AP, would MLB make their copy available to papers, and would papers use it?

Based on this, I'd say some would.

And MLB would be able to control the message even more.

Wasn't there a thread on here a while back about how the MLB editor had done a great job making it an independent entity and had free reign to direct the coverage?

 

[YankeeFan]

“I think journalists get hung up on certain lines of what’s ethical more than the readers.”

That's just awesome. How the hell could he say that? Try to justify it all you want, but don't say that.

It's funny to me to see this though. I was just thinking the other day about all of the copy that MLB.com puts out. At some point, with papers trying to save money by dropping the AP, would MLB make their copy available to papers, and would papers use it?

Based on this, I'd say some would.

And MLB would be able to control the message even more.

Wasn't there a thread on here a while back about how the MLB editor had done a great job making it an independent entity and had free reign to direct the coverage?

Maybe, but like Dooley said, they'll never tell you what's going on with the manager potentially getting canned, or break news on a trade before the team is ready to give it up.

Think an MLB.com writer would have broken a story like the Paxson/Del Negro confrontation? I don't.

They'll never criticize Bud.

They run the disclaimer that their stories aren't subject to review by MLB, but they don't have to because they never write anything that MLB would object to.

 

[MonsterLobster]

“I think journalists get hung up on certain lines of what’s ethical more than the readers.”

That's just awesome. How the hell could he say that? Try to justify it all you want, but don't say that.

It's funny to me to see this though. I was just thinking the other day about all of the copy that MLB.com puts out. At some point, with papers trying to save money by dropping the AP, would MLB make their copy available to papers, and would papers use it?

Based on this, I'd say some would.

And MLB would be able to control the message even more.

Wasn't there a thread on here a while back about how the MLB editor had done a great job making it an independent entity and had free reign to direct the coverage?

Maybe, but like Dooley said, they'll never tell you what's going on with the manager potentially getting canned, or break news on a trade before the team is ready to give it up.

Think an MLB.com writer would have broken a story like the Paxson/Del Negro confrontation? I don't.

They'll never criticize Bud.

They run the disclaimer that their stories aren't subject to review by MLB, but they don't have to because they never write anything that MLB would object to.

99 percent of baseball coverage - or any pro sport's coverage - at most dailies under 100K are gamers, player profiles from the local team of interest and stories about the Yankees' finances. If faced with some steep budget cuts, I think there are far worse things papers can do than use that stuff. As long as an editor reads it and doesn't think it's fishy, it's probably OK by the readers, too. It would seem efficient to save thousands on wire services (that do less and less all the time) and just buy the individual stories off the Tribune, NYT, McClatchy etc. services when the time for another Paxson/Del Nego situation arises.