Friday, October 21, 2011

Lawyer reportedly defends press releases as news

The Indianapolis Newspaper Guild, which represents more than 120 employees at The Indianapolis Star, says in a post today on its Facebook page

This week, Gannett's labor lawyer actually defended the notion (and with great vehemence) that the Star should be able to publish unaltered press releases in news positions in the paper. Explaining to him that this was journalistic heresy was like casting pearls before swine.

5 comments:

  1. Why shouldn't the Indy Star publish press releases in its paper? All good shoppers do that! Isn't that the business model the print side of Gannett is moving toward: Pennysavers and Shoppers?

    You should have seen yesterday's Cincinnati Enquirer! Barely enough newsprint there to cover the bottom of a birdcage ...

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  2. A Central Jersey paper has been doing this for some time. The dead giveaway is "Staff report" instead of a byline.

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  3. Perfect example of why the industry in spinning down, down, down. The ones at the top don't have an iota of a clue as to what journalism and journalism ethics entail. Idiot ideas to fatten their pockets at the expense of real journalists instead of groundbreaking models to help save the industry is the only rule these people follow.

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  4. 5:21 "save the industry" really? No model will succeed That published yesterday's news. The NYT would be out of business without the financial support of a Mexican billionaire. So stop with the save the industry nonsense. It's all digital baby.

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  5. If the industry is spiraling down so why don't all you people jump off and stop complaining already. You can't change it so get off your soap box. Lol. You guys are very funny, unrealistic to think you will change anything. Start your own print product and see who you will be taking ads from to survive. Did they teach business 101 in journalism school.....guess not . Very sad group you are. If you dislike Gannett so much why do you stay and take their money and benefits. Go find another gig. Can't?

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