The arrangement between Gannett's six N.J. newspapers and the New Jersey Devils's employee-writer may be a coup for the pro hockey team, says The New York Times, but it "puts the papers in the odd position of publishing news coverage supplied by the entity being covered."The executive editor of one of the papers, Hollis Towns of the Asbury Park Press, tells the NYT: “As long as it served our readers and we told them where that content was coming from, the readers were fine with it. I think journalists get hung up on certain lines of what’s ethical more than the readers.”
Related: A recent story by the Devils employee, Eric Martin
Towns' comment reveals his lack of journalistic judgment. Why stop with the hockey team? Why not let the flacks write up the City Council meetings, the state legislature news, the mayors', governor's, and Congress members' offices, and the big local employers? The readers will be "fine with it" until they learn that the flacks left out what makes news in the first place, which we know will never be in a press release. By then, the reporters on those beats will have been laid off and replaced by the "content managers" slapping the flack's stories on the paper's web site. Was there an outcry in the Asbury Park newsroom or what?
ReplyDeleteTowns is, of course, write. But good editors also get hung up on little things like ethics. If his paper becomes nothing more than a distribution hub, I'm not sure why anyone would want to buy it.
ReplyDeleteI imagine that you can access those Devils stories on the team's own Web site. And if I wanted to read slanted fluff that's exactly where I would go. Why would I subscribe to the paper.
Plus, if Towns feels that way about sports there's no reason to think he doesn't feel the same way about business, politics, etc.
The point that he's missing is that the majority of people have long mistrusted the media. This gives them hard and fast proof that it is biased and uneccessary.
Hopefully, when his job is eliminated two years from now, he'll realize that he played a big role in the process.
I'm beginning to think that every EE in Gannett is a complete moron who would be fired from reporting or coyp editing posts at any legitimate company.
Before everyone jumps on me, sorry for using the wrong form of "right" in my first sentence. Obviously, I know the difference.
ReplyDeleteTowns is more like an absentee landlord. Gary Schoening, the managing editor, really runs the newsroom at the APP. If you want to understand the top "editor's" lack of resistance better, you should look into his educational background.
ReplyDeleteFor that matter, you could take a look at the publisher, editor and managing editor backgrounds of all six Gannett NJ papers, and I don't think you'd find much that's impressive to journalism.
Well, well, Towns certainly comes across as a complete fool. Why would he allow the Devils to provide content he's already paying to get from an unbiased source (AP does the job nicely, thank you)? If it's so important to him, he should hire - get this - a real reporter. Plenty of 'em available right now.
ReplyDeleteGood on the Devils for finding somebody to jump into bed with them - bad on Towns and his lot for contributing so willingly to the erosion of the foundations of journalism.
WTF? More of the slippery slope.
ReplyDeleteI bet this kind of thing is happening with greater frequency than the NYT found, because of the USCP's massive cutbacks and layoffs. For example, the Gannett paper in Tallahassee uses the FAMU Sports Information Director's photos with their reporter's stories about the football program:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?NoCache=1&Dato=20100319&Kategori=FAMU03&Lopenr=3190335&Ref=AR
I don't think the readers care.
Either of them.
Our Gannett paper increasingly is riddled with lengthy press releases from government, law enforcement and others -- and I mean on the front pages! Sometimes, the contend editor will make a phone call to the issuer, but not often. This paper revels in all sorts of free content. Who needs reporters when all this stuff is free? Before long it will be little more than a community bulletin board.
ReplyDelete12:29 -- The funny thing about all of this is the further papers move in this direction, the faster they kill themselves.
ReplyDeleteIf all they do is recycle press releases, they are worthless. Those releases are available from other sources at no charge. Even local TV stations continue to do at least rudimentary reporting.
I do not believe that all the NJ papers participate - the Daily Journal in Vineland and the Courier-Post (Cherry Hill) are both firmly in Flyers country.
ReplyDeleteThat's it, the inmates have taken over the asylum. What don't these geniouses understand about the connection between readers/advertiser interests and compelling content? Oh I forgot, we damn near fired every experienced journalist in the USCP. So it comes as no surprise that this idiot would see nothing wrong with having sports teams write their own self-engratiating press reports. We have met the enemy and it ain't the web, its us! I'm so very afraid for our livelihoods.
ReplyDeleteWe have a "business section" written by local business people that the company loves. Nobody in charge seems to care that it's self-serving crap and a huge ethical problem.
ReplyDeleteFast becoming the world's biggest shopper.
ReplyDeleteAnon@929A: FAMU is Florida A&M University, a historically black college in Tallahassee.
ReplyDeleteTowns comments show Gannett's contempt for the staffers who produce content and the contempt for readers who actually trust the Gannett newspapers in NJ to provide them a dispassionate take on what happens, even at a hockey game.
ReplyDelete(From Romenesko)
ReplyDeleteTopic: Miscellaneous items
Date/Time: 1/4/2006 5:42:58 PM
Title: Enquirer managing editor promises to lighten up
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
This is an excerpt of Cincinnati Enquirer managing editor Hollis Towns' piece, which appeared in the Nov./Dec. 2005 issue of EnqSpots, his newsroom's newsletter.
I spent a week down in North Carolina learning about myself.
I thought I knew "me" pretty well, but as it turns out, I didn't have a clue.
The Center for Creative Leadership is one of those places, at first glance, you say, well, there are a bunch of smart people here, so I'll play along.
There are a battery of tests and a lot of friendly people who smile at you and remember your name.
But what I thought would be a week away from the paper to recharge, reflect and, maybe, have good Southern cooking, turned out to be an eye-opening trip down the highway of self-awareness.
I knew that sometimes I could be an ass. And insensitive. And unsympathetic. Insufferable. Demanding, among others. But, boy, I didn't know how much.
Needless to say, it was sobering.
So after seeing the numbers from Myers Briggs (ESTJ), FIRO B, 360, along with my CCL and CCI, and other acronyms and alphabets they assigned me, I learned that I've got some work to do on how I come across. I also have to better communicate what it is we are trying to do here.
Setting big goals and reaching them is hard enough. Add in the financial pressures that are forcing us to do more with less, and you easily see why there is little room for debate or even second opinions. The mandate we often operate under is, get it done and get it done yesterday.
It amounts to changing the tires while the car is still moving.
But the process has made some of you miserable.
It shows in the employee surveys and it showed in your assessment of the newsroom leadership.
So here is my challenge for the New Year: How can we make this a better place?
You know what we're up against and you know why it is I have to be so demanding at times.
My vow to you is that I plan to spend the next year working on me if you'll do the same about you.
Everyone will never be totally happy in their jobs and I don't expect that. But we can be happier and work as a team.
If each of us understands what the mission is, we'll better understand the urgency in fixing problems. You also need to better understand me so that we can tackle the challenges before us as a team.
So my vow for the New Year is self-improvement and better communication with each of you. I'll lighten up and loosen up. I'll work less, and trust more. I'll be more positive. ...
12:48 -- Good find. So Towns followed up on his promise by bolting to another paper and making the newsroom folk there miserable. At least he's a man of his "ill-thought-out" words.
ReplyDeleteThe Center for Creative Leadership is Gannett's version of "charm school". For decades they've been sending senior managers with poor leadership and people skills to CCL for behavioural modification. It's not cheap so Towns acknowledging he's been an ass and his attempts at self-reflection are key steps towards having that investment pay off fully if he also learns how to inspire, motivate and build loyalty. Gannett can't afford to send everyone who needs this intense "how to be human" therapy to CCL. Too bad. Something tells me the list is not short.
ReplyDeleteTowns was so indispensable in Cincinnati that his old job remains unfilled to this day.
ReplyDeleteLook, to be honest, the Cincinnati Towns affair was extremely painful for many people. To put it simply, Towns was indeed ushered off to charm school because a genuine revolution -- perhaps of the legal kind -- was building. It was an unfortunate time. His management style created conflicts, and lots of them. In the company's defense, they did get him to school and ultimately out of the shop. But fundamentally his approach was, even by Gannett standards, corrosive. The details would be considered libelous, even if truth is a defense.
ReplyDeleteThe wonderful thing about Towns' comment on the Devils situation is that he has forever tied himself to Gannett and other second-tier companies. Should things turn around for newspapers - and that's a big if - it's hard to imagine one of the more respectable chains allowing a guy like him into their fold.
ReplyDeleteWhen you go on record as saying ethics don't matter, you limit your future employment opportunities.
While an unpleasant arrangement, it's not the end of the world. The comments here prove Hollis right -- journos take things too seriously, far more seriously than readers. Readers just don't care about journalistic insider baseball THAT MUCH!
ReplyDeleteAs for Cincy, folks needed a kick in the pants. Though Hollis may not have been the huggable type of leader, he did what others seemed afraid to do at and for a C-plus level paper.