Funny how this keeps happening

Bomber, I know where you're coming from. Inside, I'd like to be tough on them too, but you can't draw a line in the sand with sources like that.

I'm not talking about getting a blessing before running with it. You do, however, owe it to your story to make an attempt to contact the person you're writing about. I mean, that's not going to get past my editors, that's for sure. Do you really think it's fair to report on someone and let them see it the next morning without a chance to respond? And I'm not talking about breaking, say, a team adding a game to its schedule or a kid signing, etc.

MU, we do a lot of breaking news on the web now. I'm at a Gannett shop after all. I am still getting used to thinking like that, especially because the paper we compete with has written stories they knew nothing about simply because they read our web site at 3 in the afternoon. But as a very influential editor once said to me, if you get it on the web first you broke the story. Plain and simple. That's the time we live in now, you don't need to be explained that. The days of breaking news headlines splashed in the morning paper are virtually over (with the exception of investigations).

 

But there's a BIG difference between the competition seeing a story on your site and then reporting on it vs. your subject tipping them off.

 

I would ask your newspaper's management what they want to do about it. Perhaps they can work things out with the university president if the AD is an ass, I don't know. If they aren't opposed to going blondebomber on them, so be it.

 

I've been thinking about this all day and after previous circumstances and some conversations with a couple people who know this specific situation (including a poster here) the bigger problem coming out of this is that the coach was likely in on it. As I'd posted on here a few months back, me and him had a nice little run-in a while back that left him trying to get me fired. Obviously, it didn't work, and things lately have been infinitely better.
So I thought.
I guess I'm just glad football season is over and basketball is getting started. And I'm glad I have another reason to get stuff on the Web instead of waiting for the paper.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I can now say my time here is work related.