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 heck 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 fork. . .

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 shirtty 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 shirt.
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.